icliigan and tlu. 
.ch Explc) 



er.s 



iMtlHtlDitUnUillUUUUtU 




Class __t_ill 
Bnok J'U:^ 



GopyrightN^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



THE GREAT LAKES SERIES 



Lake Michigan and the French 
Explorers 



By 

Edward Payson Morton, Ph. D. 




CHICAGO 

AINSWORTH & COMPANY 



The Great Lakes Series comprises, in the narrative of a continuous 
journey: 

The Mohawk Valley and Lake Ontario. 
Lake Erie and the Story of Commodore Perry. 
Lake Huron and the Country of the Algonqulns. 
Lake Michigan and the French Explorers. 



■/viH 



Copyright, 1914, by 
AINSWORTH & COMPANY 



The publishers desire to express their appreciation for the use of illus 
trations to Mr. Lewis H. Beeson, of. Ni)es, Mich.; the Rev. W. B. Thorn, 
Oneida, Wis.; the Pere Marquette Raclroad, and the Wisconsin State ^^i^ 
torical Society. ' • ' 



L. M. t. E. 



rtB 7 1914 

©C1.A863471 



INTRODUCTION 

The author and the pubHshers of the Great Lakes 
Series feel that it is proper for them to set forth briefly 
the principles which have guided them in preparing these 
supplementary readers. 

Though we realize that our work needs to be inter- 
esting, we do not wish it to be merely entertaining. These 
readers are school books and are not intended c s a recrea- 
tion for idle hours. Therefore we have been careful 
not to give too much space to stories of battles and 
skirmishes or to picturesque Indian legends. Because 
the reading lesson is too often but slightly related to the 
rest of the curriculum, we have tried to supplement the 
work in other studies by laying stress upon the more 
obvious relations between geography, history and com- 
merce. Exploration and trade in America have both 
romantic and practical aspects, and one or the other of 
these is sure to appeal to wideawake children. The 
scenes visited in these books offer abundant material of 
both kinds — the chief difficulty has been to select. 

In deciding upon the story form, as a convenient 
thread upon which to string what we wish to tell, we 
have tried to steer clear of two temptations. We do not 
intend that these stories shall be guide-books ; therefore 
we have been sparing of mere dates and figures. Also, 
we do not wish to make James and Carrie a pair of pre- 
cocious little prigs, escorted by a pedant. Therefore we 



have tried to make the characters talk like normal human 
beings, in language that is simple and colloquial, and at 
the same time free from slang and sins of grammar — 
such English, in short, as may reasonably be aspired to 
by those who wish to express themselves simply and 
clearly, without affectation either of bookish precision 
or of slovenly carelessness. 

Some knowledge of history has been assumed : for 
example, that the Revolutionary War was the struggle 
of the American colonies for independence from Great 
Britain. Nothing has been merely alluded to which 
would demand lengthy or involved explanation ; but it 
has been thought worth while to touch upon a few mat- 
ters which are not fully explained, in order to stimulate 
that legitimate curiosity which is a chief source of 
growth in knowledge. 

In accordance with this notion, the Questions, it will 
be observed, are hardly at all a catechism on the bare 
text. They are intended to send the pupils to their 
geographies, to the school dictionary, and to the common 
sources of information with which they should be be- 
ginning to grow familiar. Questions which can be an- 
swered by yes or no have been avoided ; they are all 
designed to require a reasonable amount of attention and 
thought about the matter in hand. The habit of observ- 
ing accurately and thinking clearly can hardly be begun 
too soon. 




IN THE STRAITS OF MACKINAC 

*'Are we going to see the old 
fort that Pontiac's Indians cap- 
tured, Uncle Jack?" 

"Yes, my dear," answered Ma- 
jor Woods, turning to Carrie, his 
niece, who had asked the question. 
"That is to say, we are going to see ^^^^^^.^ „^^„ 
the place where it was. As soon as 

James and I pay our bills, and you and your aunt Lucy 
can pack up, we'll go over to St. Ignace, and from there 
to Mackinaw City. How does that strike you?" 

"Fine, Uncle! When we get back to Chicago, I'll be 
glad to recommend you as a guide, if anyone asks. I 
hate to think that we've started on our last week, though." 

"Never mind, Carrie," said her brother James. 
"Uncle Jack and Aunt Lucy have had so much fun this 
summer that they'll want another trip by next year." 

"Well, well," interrupted Major Woods, "stop your 
nonsense and get ready to start. Come along, James." 

Mackinac Island had never looked more beautiful 
than it did that August morning as the little stcamei 
backed away from the dock and swung west toward 
St. Ignace. 

"Isn't it lovely !" sighed Carrie. "Just see how dis- 
tinct the fort is, and that long hotel veranda with its 



8 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

white pillars! And see that pretty little summerhouse 
right at the edge of the cliff!" 

'It's all right here in the summer, but I don't think 
I'd care to be up here in the winter,'' said James. 

**It is rather quiet in winter," answered his uncle, 
''with the straits frozen over and no boats passing. But 
then they have sleighing parties on the ice." 

"Oh," said Carrie, "does it freeze clear across here?" 

"Yes, except that the shifting winds and the currents 
usually keep, a narrow crack open near the middle. They 
still tell the story of the St. Ignace family that went over 
to the Island to eat Christmas dinner with some of their 
kinsmen. They had fastened the bed of the big farm- 
wagon to sled runners, wrapped the grandmother up 
warm, set her m her rocking-chair, and lifted chair and 
all into the sled. When they got over near the Island 
they saw that the crack in the ice was pretty wide, so 
they whipped the horses into a run and made them jump 
it. A few minutes later they missed the grandmother, 
and when they looked back, there she was on the far 
side of the crack, still sitting in her rocker. The chair 
had been jolted out when they jumped the crack, but the 
grandmother hadn't even been upset." 

"My!" said James, "weren't they frightened?" 

"I imagine they were, but so long as the grandmother 
wasn't hurt, they had a good story to tell." 

"Jimmie," said Carrie, "wouldn't it be fun to go 
across here on the ice!" 

By this time the steamer was not very far from 
Point St. Ignace. 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



OLD ST. IGNACE 



"Now, children," said Major Woods, "we shan't see 
very much over here at St. Ignace. The first mission, 
you remember, was on the island in 1669. Then, in 1671 
Father Marquette established one here, out on this point 
somewhere. When La Salle and Tonty came along in 
the 'Griffon' in the summer of 1679, they built a stockade 
here. Then in 1728, after the station had been aban- 
doned for a few years and reoccupied, the French built 
a new fort over on the southern peninsula near where 
Mackinaw City now is, and it was this last fort that the 
Indians captured in 1763. Both the missions and the 
stockades were built of logs, and like most of the mis- 
sions over in the Georgian Bay have left no traces." 

"Why, the village is on the Huron side of the point, 
isn't it?" said James, as the steamer turned north instead 
of going through the straits into Lake Michigan. 

"Yes, as you'll see in a minute, there is a sheltered 
bay on this side, while the Michigan shore is exposed. 
Now, I wonder if Harvey Clark still drives a 'hack'? 
If he does, we must get him to take us around. Yes, 
there he is, and he doesn't look a day older or the least 
bit less red in the face than he used to. 

"Well, Harvey, how are you? You remember Mrs. 
Woods, I'm sure." 

"Yes, sir, I certainly do. But I don't seem to remem- 
ber any children. Who are these young folks?" 

"Oh, these are my brother's children, James and 
Carrie. We've been all over Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, 



10 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

and Lake Huron, and now we are going to explore Lake 
Michigan. Can you drive us around for a little while 
and bring us back in time to catch the 'Marie'?" 

"Surely, surely. I reckon you don't care for some 
of the things I always show the tourists. You just want 
to see the things that are worth while." 

"Quite right. Take us up to Marquette Park, and 
then down toward the Point, won't you ? What's become 
of your daughter Angela?" 

"Why, sir, do you remember her still? She was a 
little mite of a thing when you were here. Well, sir, 
she's a grown young woman now and teaches school out 
in Dakota." 

While the Major and Harvey were talking, the horses 
were trotting briskly along the main street which follows 
the curve of the shore. All at once Mrs. Woods ex- 
claimed : 

"Just look at that ! I verily believe that same sleek 
Jersey cow has been standing on that cliff for fifteen 
years!" As she spoke she pointed to a sharp projection 
of the cliff, perhaps sixty feet above them, on the very 
edge of which the cow stood looking out over the lake. 

"She looks exactly like a statue, doesn't she?" said 
Carrie. 

" 'Tisn't likely that it's the same cow," said Harvey, 
"but she belongs to the same herd that's been pastured 
there as far back as I can remember." 

After Harvey had taken them up the steep hill to the 
top of the bluff, and past the little water tower, he turned 
around and drove down toward the Point by the upper 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 11 

road, from which they looked out across the bay to the 
Island. At the church, James asked his uncle if Father 
Marquette wasn't buried at St. Ignace. 

*'Yes. He died over on the east side of Lake Michi- 
gan not very far from where Ludington now is, but 
after a year or so they brought his remains to St. Ignace 
and buried them under the chapel. Whether or not this 
church is on the exact site of the old one, I do not know." 

"Why do they sometimes call him 'Pere Marquette,' 
Uncle?" 

"Because he was a Frenchman, and 'Pere' is the 
French word for 'father.' Harvey, isn't that the 'Marie's' 
whistle? Hadn't we better be getting down to the dock?" 

"All right, sir!" 

ON BOARD THE "SAINTE MARIE" 

At the dock they found that the "Marie" had already 
taken aboard her load of freight cars, and the crew were 
beginning to cast off the lines. Hastily saying goodbye 
to Harvey Clark, our party went aboard and were ush- 
ered to the upper deck. The children, however, were 
curious to see how a car-ferry was managed, so Major 
Woods turned them over to the purser, who led them 
down to the huge main deck, and showed them the four 
tracks with their rails securely bolted to the steel floor. 
He showed them, too, how the cars were solidly clamped 
to the rails so that the motion of the vessel couldn't send 
them crashing out at either end. 

"Why, it's just like a tunnel, isn't it?" cried Carrie. 



12 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

"It's open at both ends ! Which end is the bow ? I can't 
tell which is which." 

"This end," answered the purser. "The deckhouse 
is the same at both ends, but the hull isn't. You see, the 
'Marie' has to run all the year round, and as there is 
always ice in the straits for four or five months, she has 
to be built so as to be able to break her path through 
the ice, even when it is several feet thick." 

"How can she do that?" asked James. 

"Her bow, instead of being sharp and pointed, is flat 
and sloping, so that when she is driven against a field of 
ice, the bow slides up on it and the weight of the boat 
helps to crush the ice. Then there is a screw under the 
bow as well as at the stern, and this forward screw 
sucks the water from under the ice so that its own 
weight helps to break it down. The forward screw also 
throws the broken ice to each side out of the way." 

"How thick ice can she break?" asked James. 

"Oh, she can take a full load of freight cars and make 
eight miles an hour — that's about twice as fast as a man 
can walk — through clear ice two feet thick." 

"My! I'd like to take a trip with her then!" 

"Well, you might find one trip interesting, but I don't 
think you'd care for many. Why, sometimes the ice 
piles up each side of the boat thirty feet high ! Come 
into my ofiice and I'll show you a photograph I took only 
last winter. Here, isn't that a beauty?" 

"Yes, indeed; but how did you take it?" 

"Oh, I climbed out on to the ice and got fifty yards 
away." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



13 



"Wasn't that dangerous?" asked Carrie, open-eyed. 
"Not very; all I had to do was to be careful not to 
slip into the holes between the cakes." 






The Car-Ferry "Sainte Marie" 

While the purser was still talking, the "Marie" gave 
a long, deep-toned whistle, and he broke oflf abruptly, 
saying : 

*'Now, I must leave you, but if you stay right here 
you can see how we make our landing at Mackinaw 
City." 

"We're very much obliged to you for showing us 
around," said James, and Carrie added : 

"Indeed we are. Thank you very much!" 



14 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

Presently the engines stopped and the *' Marie" drifted 
slowly into her slip. With scarcely a jar she came to a 
stop, the landing stage was let down to the level of the 
deck, with much clanking of chains, and a fussy little 
locomotive waited impatiently to take out the cars. The 
Major and Mrs. Woods came down the stairs from the 
upper deck and joined the children. As soon as they 
could they made their way ashore and the Major took 
them to a restaurant for lunch, 

FRONTIER FORTS 

While they ate, Carrie asked: 

"Was the old fort somewhere near here, Uncle 
Jack?" 

"Yes, though I think it must have been a little far- 
ther west, for Alexander Henry wrote that 'the fort 
stands on the south side of the strait which is between 
Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. . . . It is so near 
the water's edge that, when the wind is in the west, the 
waves break against the stockade.' " 

"Why did they build so near the water. Uncle?" 
asked James. 

"You must remember that none of those forts ever 
had a very large garrison. And they were usually hun- 
dreds of miles from other forts or settlements — merely 
little outposts in the wilderness. They were fairly safe 
retreats from the Indians in just this way: there was 
usually a clear space all around them, so that the Indians 
could not come near the stockade without being exposed 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



15 



to the guns of the soldiers; and the Indians had no 
artillery with which to batter down the stockade. You 
remember that a stockade was made of heavy logs set 
well into the ground and close together. Now, if the fort 
were, say, a quarter of a mile or even a hundred yards 
from the water, then reenforcements and supplies would 
have had to risk attack when they were landed. But 
with the fort close to the water, it was itself a shelter 
for the landing. In other words, the usual frontier post 
along the lakes and the rivers was really a fortified land- 
ing-place." 

*'But, Uncle Jack, didn't people ever march across 
country ?" 

"Oh, yes, but not often, for it was so much quicker 
and easier to go by water that people always went that 
way when they could. I can give you a good illustra- 
tion of that. You remember, don't you, that when we 
were over in Ohio Colonel Webb Hayes told us about 
Major Croghan and how he defended Fort Stephenson 
against the British in the War of 1812?" 

"Oh, yes, that was at Fremont." 

"Well, do you remember, too, that one of Major 
Croghan's uncles was George Rogers Clark?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"In the Revolutionary War, Clark captured two forts 
from the British just by marching across country when 
the enemy expected him to come by water. In 1778 he 
left the rapids of the Ohio, where Louisville is now, to 
attack the British at Kaskaskia, over on the Mississippi. 
Well, he went down the Ohio as far as the mouth of the 



16 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

Tennessee River. If he had gone on to the Mississippi 
and up that river, the British would have had warning 
of his approach. Clark understood that, so he marched 
his little band of frontiersmen off across country a hun- 
dred and twenty miles, and just because the British did 
not dream any one would toil through the wilderness 
when the rivers offered an easy journey, Clark took them 
by surprise and without a fight captured a post he could 
hardly have taken by an open attack. 

'That was in the summer, for Clark captured Kas- 
kaskia on the Fourth of July. The very next winter, he 
wanted to take Vincennes, which was on the Wabash 
River, two hundred and thirty miles away. If he went 
by water, the British would be on the lookout, so he 
again marched his little company across the country in 
bitterly cold weather and through floods that made a 
lake of the whole Wabash valley. He succeeded again, 
just because his whole adventure was based on the fact 
that other men always traveled by water when it was 
possible to do so." 

"Where are we going now. Uncle?" asked Carrie, as 
they got up from the table. 

"We have our choice of two things," answered the 
Major. "We can take the train down to Harbor Springs, 
or we can take a boat to Cheboygan, which is on the 
South Channel a few miles east of here, and from there 
go to Petoskey by way of Indian River, a couple of lakes, 
and Crooked River. Which do you prefer?" 

"Oh, I think Indian River and Crooked River sound 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 17 

awfully interesting. Let's go that way, if it doesn't make 
any difference." 

"But that's the longest way around, Carrie," said the 
Major. 'The train will take us in a couple of hours, but 
if we go by boat we shan't get to Petoskey until pretty 
late tonight," 

"Well, we are having such a good time that we aren't 
in any hurry, are we?" answered Carrie. "Besides, if we 
go the longer way we'll see more, won't we?'' 

**I suppose that settles it," said Major Woods, pre- 
tending to sigh. "So we'd better be on our way." 

As they left Mackinaw City and the lovely Island be- 
gan to sink below the horizon behind them, the children 
turned their attention to the shore and to the vessels 
they passed. Presently James turned to Major Woods 
and asked : 

"Uncle Jack, Mackinac seems to have been a very 
important place in the old days. Why isn't it now?" 

"Pm not surprised that you ask," answered the Ma- 
jor. "About fifty years ago a certain enterprising man 
felt so sure that the Straits of Mackinac were destined 
to be the site of a great city that he bought practically 
the whole tip of the southern peninsula here, and mapped 
out plans for the huge metropolis that he thought was 
bound to come. But, as you see, his plans miscarried. 
You ought to be able to answer your own question, 
though. Why was Mackinac important in the early 
days?" 

"Because the Indians brought their furs there to sell 
to the French traders, I suppose." 



18 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

*'Why isn't that true now?" 

"Is it because the trappers have had to go into the 
Northwest and the trading-posts have followed them?'' 

"Exactly. In those days, the fur trade made Mack- 
inac a transfer point. Now, since the commerce of the 
lakes is not furs but iron ore and coal and grain and 
manufactures, Mackinac is no longer a transfer point, 
but merely a passing place. If there had been another 
Niagara Falls between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron 
as there is between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, then 
Mackinac might have been almost as important as Buf- 
fal(^ At the Sault Ste. Marie the rapids made the vil- 
lage there relatively important for a while, but only for 
a while. Don't you know what really took away its im- 
portance ?" 

"Do you mean the canal and the locks which let the 
big boats through between Lake Superior and the lower 
lakes?" 

"Yes, that's just it. And another thing contributes 
to make the straits merely a passing place. When a rail- 
road was built from Duluth to St. Ignace and another 
one up from the south to Mackinaw City, it seemed quite 
certain that freight would have to be unloaded from the 
cars, ferried across the straits, and reloaded at the other 
side. A bridge was out of the question, but — you have 
already found out what has taken place." 

"Of course," answered James. "The car-ferry is al- 
most as good as a bridge, isn't it?" 

"It answers the same purpose, for the freight doesn't 
have to be rehandled." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



19 



*'Why don't they build a tunnel?" 
"Perhaps they will some day." 

HOW THE BEAVERS LIVE 

At Cheboygan they left the trim, high-prowed lake 
boat and found seats on a funny little river steamer. As 
soon as they were well started up Indian River, Carrie 
exclaimed : 

"Oh ! this is just fine ! Just think of going right 
through the woods on a boat!" 

'That's the principal reason for coming this way, ' 
said the Major. "This is about our only chance of seeing 
what the country looked like when the first French trap- 
pers began to paddle up the rivers. Of course, it isn't 
quite as wild and uninhabited as it was two hundred and 
fifty years ago, but it does fairly well." 

"I should think it does!" said James. "I could al- 
most think we were the first people who ever came along 
here. Uncle, do you suppose we'll see any beavers?" 

"No, I suppose not, though this was a good country 
for them." 

"Oh, I'd love to see some beavers !'' said Carrie. 
"What are they like?" 

"Well, beavers are furry little animals about two feet 
and a half long, and weighing in the neighborhood of 
thirty pounds. They have very small ears hidden in the 
fur, small forelegs, very strong hind legs, with the toes 
webbed almost like a duck's, and a broad, flat, hairless 
tail. They belong to the rodents, that is, they have very 
strong, sharp front teeth with which they gnaw like 



20 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



squirrels and rats. With these teeth they are able to cut 
down good-sized trees — I've seen many a one fourteen or 
fifteen inches across cut down by the beavers." 

*'Is it true, Uncle," asked James, ''that beavers can 
make a tree fall in any direction they want to?" 

_, "No, that is 



purefiction. Along 
the steep banks of 
a stream the trees 
are likely to lean 
a little toward the 
water, and of 
course they fall 
that way. But I've 
seen trees cut 
down by the bea- 
vers which had fallen away from the water and into the 
branches of other trees. If they could make them fall 
as they want they wouldn't let them do that." 

"But don't they make trees fall across a stream so as 
to make a dam?" asked Carrie. 

"No. Once in a long time hunters find a dam with 
a fallen tree in it, but hardly ever one which was cut 
down by the beavers. That the beavers make dams at 
all is wonderful enough, but they are not quite such mar- 
velous engineers as many people think. They build their 
dams of sticks and mud and stones, but they do not lay 
a foundation of logs, or drive posts, and then plaster 
with mud. The most wonderful thing about their dams 
is that where the water has little motion the dams are 




Beaver Chips 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



21 



asked James. 



almost straight, but where the current is rapid and strong 
the beavers make the dam curve against the stream Hke 
an arch, exactly as engineers build dams today." 

"Why do they build dams, Uncle Jack?" asked 
Carrie. 

"Because they build their lodges in the water, with 
the entrance under the surface, and since they live in 
cold climates they must build in water so deep that it 
won't freeze to the bottom. You see, they'd be in 
trouble if they got frozen in." 

"What are their houses like?' 
"The lodges, as the 
trappers call them, are 
not nearly so wonderful 
as their dams. They are 
simply great roofs of 
sticks, stones, and mud 
which cover a single 
room. Some writers have 
told very interesting 
tales about their elabo- 
rate houses with several 

The Reaver and His Famous Lodges 

rooms and even two or From an 'old prim. 1755 

three stories high. These writers of fairy tales have 
actually given us pictures to support their statements. 
Here, for instance, is one which I found in a book pub- 
lished in 1755. Now, here is a picture of a lodge taken 
from a photograph, and here is a beaver's head, just to 
show you how little truth the romancer put into his 
picture." 




22 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

"Does each family have its own lodge, Uncle?" asked 
Carrie. 

*'Yes, unless by accident two families build so close 
together that lodges overlap. But even then they have 




their separate entrances. The only things they have in 
common are dams." 

"Why do people tell such untrue things about beavers, 
Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"That's just what I'd like to know," said James. 

"Oh, that would be a hard question to answer. The 
beavers are very shy animals and work mostly at night, 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 23 

SO that it is really very difficult to observe them accu- 
rately. Then, although beavers were once to be found 
all over Europe and northern Asia and a great part of 
North America, they are now to be found only in North 
America and in one or two places in Asia. They thrive 
in the wilderness only, and as the country is settled they 
disappear. So, for the most part our knowledge of them 
comes from trappers and adventurers, and you know 
that the hunter when he gets back from his trips likes 
to tell big stories. Some of the tales about the beavers, 
too, go back to the days when books on natural history 
were based more on conjecture than on careful observa- 
tion. Michael Drayton, for instance, an English poet 
of Shakespeare's time — do you know when Shakespeare 
lived ?" 

"In Queen Elizabeth's time." answered Carrie 
promptly. 

"Yes, but when was that? How long ago?" 

"Oh, I remember now," said James. "Shakespeare 
died in 1616." 

"Correct. Do you remember anything connected with 
our trip that goes back that far?" 

"Champlain came up into New York about that time, 
didn't he?" 

"Why, yes," interrupted Carrie, "don't you remember 
that Hudson sailed up to Albany the same summer that 
Champlain was on Lake Champlain? That was in 1609, 
wasn't it. Uncle Jack?" 

"Yes. Well, then, just about the time the French 
really began to explore North America, Michael Drayton 



24 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

wrote about the beaver. I'll read part of it to you, and 
you'll see that it's about half fact and half fiction. His 
English is a little old-fashioned, but I think you can make 
out what he means : 

'A foraging he goes, to groves or bushes nigh. 

And with his teeth cuts down his timber; which laid by. 

He turns him on his back, 

When with what he hath got the other do him load; 

Till lastly, by the weight, his burden he have found. 

Then with his mighty tail his carriage having bound 

As carters do with ropes, in his sharp teeth he grip'd 

Some stronger stick; from which the lesser branches stript 

He takes it in the midst; at both ends the rest 

Hard holding with their fangs, unto the labour prest. 

Going backward towards their home their loaded carriage led, 

From whom those first here born were taught the useful sled/ " 

"How funny !" said Carrie, "I can hardly understand 
it at all. Just what does he mean, Uncle?" 

**Why, don't you see, Carrie?" said James. "Drayton 
says that the beaver lies flat on his back and the other 
beavers pile wood on him until he gets as much as he 
can hold on with his tail. Then he takes a stick in his 
mouth and the others taking hold of the ends of the 
stick drag him home as if he were a sled. Do they 
really do that way, Uncle?" 

"Oh my, no. Mud and stones they carry in their 
forepaws pressed close against their throats. But sticks 
and branches they always take in their teeth. They 
nearly always cut their wood above the dam so that the 
current will help carry it down to them." 

"What do they eat. Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"Hearne says they feed on the bark of trees, espe- 
cially poplar, birch, and willow, and in summer on ber- 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



25 



ries. In the winter their chief food, he says, is the large 
root of a kind of waterlily, which they dig up from the 
bottom of the stream or pond where their lodges are." 

"Who was Hearne, Uncle?" asked James. 

"He was an Englishman, Samuel Hearne, who nearly 
a hundred and fifty years ago made a four years' explor- 
ing trip for the Hudson's Bay Company. In his book 
about his trip he has a chapter on the beavers which 
later naturalists have not been able to improve on. For 
instance, he says of their lodges that 'It has never been 
observed that they aim at any other convenience in their 
houses than to have a dry place to lie on ; and there they 
usually eat their victuals, which they occasionally take 
out of the water.' 

"And Hearne also has a few sentences about the men 
who make up stories about the beavers. *I cannot refrain 
from smiling,' he writes, 'when I read the accounts of 
different authors who have written on the economy of 
those animals, as there seems to be a contest between 
them, who shall most exceed in fiction. But the Com- 
piler of the Wonders of Nature and Art seems, in my 
opinion, to have succeeded best in this respect; as he 
has not only collected all the fictions into which other 
writers on the subject have run, but has so greatly im- 
proved on them that little remains to be added to his 
account of the beaver besides a vocabulary of their lan- 
guage, a code of their laws, and a sketch of their reli- 
gion, to make it the most complete natural history of that 
animal which can possibly be offered to the public' " 

"I should think," said James, trying to keep his face 



26 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

straight, ''that Hearne was making fun of the Wonders 
of Nature and Art." 

Carrie turned to him in surprise, then as he burst 
out laughing, she said : 

''Jinimie Woods, you're the worst tease! Mr. 
Hearne said he couldn't help smiling." 

Just then the steamer, after having crossed Mullet 
Lake and Burt Lake, turned into the windings of Crooked 
River, and James and Carrie forgot everything else in 
their excitement as the steamer went around bends so 
sharp that she almost stuck her nose in the bank, and 
made the passengers dodge the branches of overhanging 
trees. At last they came out into Crooked Lake, and at 
Conway took the train for Petoskey. As they passed 
through Wa-ya-ga-mug, Major Woods said to them: 

"There's another place where the Indians play 'Hia- 
watha' every summer." 

At Petoskey they had a late dinner, and afterwards 
Mrs. Woods and the children were so sleepy they went 
straight to their rooms, leaving the Major to finish his 
smoke by himself. 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 



An account of Alexander Henry, and his story of the capture 
of old Fort Mackinac by Pontiac's Indians, will be found in the 
last chapter of "Lake Huron and the Country of the Algonquins." 

The building of La Salle's "Griffon" is told about in "Lake 
Erie and the Story of Commodore Perry." 

For an account of Major Croghan's defense of Fort Stephen- 
son, see "Lake Erie and the Story of Commodore Perry." 

Trace on a map the journey from Mackinac to Petoskey. 
About how many miles did they travel? How far would it have 
been if they had gone direct from Mackinac to Petoskey? 

Some of the proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows : 

St. Ignace (sent Tg' nace) Mackinac (mak' T naw) 
Vincennes (vni senz') Cheboygan (she boy' gan) 

Sault Ste. Marie (s66 sent ma' ry) 



Spell, pronounce, 
recommend 
straits 
abandoned 
abruptly 
garrison 
fortified 
peninsula 
contributes 
elaborate 
occasionally 



and 



explain : 

veranda 
sleighing 
projection 
restaurant 
artillery 
enterprising 
metropolis 
marvelous 
observation 
economy 



pillars 

established 

purser 

frontier 

reenforcements 

practically 

manufactr 

engineers 

convenience 

vocabulary 



St: 




GRAND HAVEN 

• GRAND RAPIDS 



MILWAUKEE 



CHICAGO 



W 30 40 50 



SCALE OF MILES 



L'ARBRE CROCHE 




1 thoueht we were 



"Oh !" exclaimed Carrie, as 
she and James came out upon 
the broad veranda of the liotel 
after breakfast, "what a perfect 
day! And how clear it is!" 

"I'm glad of that," said Ma- 
jor Woods, who had followed 
close after them, "because we 
want to cross the lake before 
night." 

"Cross the lake!" said James 
going on down the east coast." 

"No, we can't do that very well. If we had started 
at Chicago, w^e might easily have gone up one shore and 
down the other, but since w^e have started at Mackinac 
and are going to end our journey at Chicago in a very 
few days we'll have to zigzag some." 

"Where'U we be tonight, Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"Safe in Green Bay, I hope. We are going now to 
take a train around the edge of the bay here to Harbor 
Springs. Over there we'll catch a boat down to Charle- 
voix, and from Charlevoix we'll go across the lake. I've 
been telegraphing and have engaged a motorboat to take 
us over. We'll have lunch on board, I think." 

"Oh, goody !" exclaimed Carrie. "I'm ready to start 
this very minute." 

'So am I !" echoed James. 

"All right," answered the Major. "Carrie, you go 



30 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



and bring your Aunt Lucy, and James and I will meet 
you here at the steps in ten minutes." 

They all met promptly at the steps and within an hour 
were at Harbor Springs. 

'T suppose," said Major Woods, in answer to a ques- 
tion, ''that there must have been somewhere on a height 
hereabouts a 'crooked tree' large enough or isolated 
enough to serve the Indians as a landmark. A.t any rate, 
the French mission to the Ottawas here was known in the 
early days as 'L'Arbre Croche.' You remember, when 
we were in the Georgian Bay we found that the Iroquois, 
by the raids in which they captured and killed Father 
Jean de Brebeuf, drove the Hurons and Ottawas west- 
ward. Within a generation after that, the remnants of 
the two tribes got into a quarrel with the Sioux, who 
came from beyond the west end of Lake Superior and 
drove the Ottawas and Hurons back toward the east 
again. The Hurons retreated to Q-and Manitoulin Is- 
land, east of Sault Ste. Marie, but the Ottawas came 
down here, and the missionaries came with them." 

"Well, this was a beautiful place for a mission, any- 
way," said Carrie. "But tell me. Uncle Jack, does every- 
body in the United States go to a summer resort some- 
where? It seems to -me we haven't seen anything but 
'resorters' since we left Montreal. Lake Champlain and 
Lake George, the Thousand Islands, and Niagara Falls, 
and Chautauqua, and the St. Clair Flats, and the Georgian 
Bay, the Soo and Mackinac, and all these places along 
here are just full of them." 

"There are a lot of them, aren't there?" agreed the 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 31 

Major. *'As a matter of fact, I suppose that not more 
than a fourth of the population gets away from home in 
the summer. But it is a fine thing for those who can go, 
and it is a good thing for those to whom they come. 
Many people who do not get a change of scene them- 
selves nevertheless have a breath of the outside world 
brought to them. 

**Ah !" he continued, "there's the boat for Charlevoix. 
We're not 'resorters,' you know ; we're only 'tourists, 
and are under a spell that obliges us to keep moving, like 
the Wandering Jew. So come along. Forward march I" 

CHARLEVOIX 

"Charlevoix sounds like a French name, Uncle Jack," 
said James, when they had left the dock and were started 
across the bay. "What does it mean?" 

"Oh, that place is named in honor of Father Pierre 
Frangois Xavier de Charlevoix, a historian and traveler 
who came this way in 1720, prospecting for a suitable 
trade route to the Pacific Ocean. After he had traveled 
around out here, he suggested an expedition up the Mis- 
souri River because he felt sure that somewhere near its 
source explorers would find another stream that flowed 
west and finally emptied into the Pacific. Of course, 
Charlevoix had very little idea how far away the Pacific 
was, or that there were such tremendous mountains as 
the Rockies on the way. He thought, I suppose, that 
near the head of the Missouri there would be a portage 
not any worse than the nine-mile one between Lake Erie 



32 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

and Lake Chautauqua, or than the one around Niagara 
Falls. 

"The French did not take his suggestion, but nearly a 
hundred years later .Captain Meriwether Lewis and 
Lieutenant William Clark, under orders from Presi- 
dent Thomas Jefferson, carried out Father Charlevoix's 
idea almost exactly. Between March, 1804, and Septem- 
ber, 1806, they made the round trip from St. Louis up 
the Missouri River and down the Columbia to its mouth. 
But they met with hardships and difficulties of which 
Charlevoix could have had no conception. Doubtless he 
would have been surprised to know that steamers were 
finally able to go up the Missouri River over 2,600 miles 
— nearly three times the distance from Chicago to New 
Orleans ! 

"But what is even more remarkable is that in less than 
a hundred and fifty years after Charlevoix's visit to the 
lakes, a railroad was built from St. Louis to the coast, 
and men could ride at ease across those desert plains and 
those mountains which had formed so terrible a barrier 
to pioneers and gold-seekers." 

They were now running into Charlevoix harbor, and 
as they came in one of the big passenger boats was going 
out. 

"This looks like a nice harbor," said James. 

"It is," said his uncle, "most of the time, but when the 
wind is in just the right quarter the big boats don't risk 
coming in. Do you remember, Lucy, when we were at 
Mackinac, what a time poor Mrs. Benson had? She 
didn't like traveling by water at all, and wanted to come 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS SS 

up from Chicago by rail. But her people persuaded her 
to take one of the fast boats. Of course a storm came up, 
and Mrs. Benson was so miserable that she wished more 
than ever she had gone by rail. When the steamer got 
up as far as Charlevoix the lake was too rough for a land- 
ing, so they took Mrs. Benson on to Mackinac and prom- 
ised to land her at Charlevoix on their way back. Well, 
on the way back it was still too stormy for a landing, so 
Mrs. Benson was carried clear to Chicago again and had 
to make a third trip the length of the lake. And now I 
fear she dislikes traveling by water more than ever." 

"But why couldn't the boat come in here, Uncle?" 
asked James. 

"Because the wind and the waves might drive the boat 
against the breakwater or the pier. You see, a good boat 
can stand almost any amount of tossing about by the 
waves — if only it can keep away from shore. On the 
ocean, if a storm comes up, a vessel can run before it 
and be tolerably safe. But on the lakes the land is al- 
ways so near that in a storm the captain's chief care is 
to keep from being driven ashore. For that reason a 
storm on the lakes is likely to do a good deal of damage. 

*'But after all, the worst thing about the lakes is the 
ice. In the summer lake travel is quite safe, but in the 
fall especially owners and shippers are so anxious to have 
the boats make 'just one more trip' that bad weather 
catches them. The constant pounding of ice against the 
sides of a vessel is hard on it, but the sailors fear most 
of all cold, windy weather when the spray is driven all 
over the boat and freezes as it falls, so that in a few 



34 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

hours the boat is so heavily coated with ice that it sinks 
from its weight." 

"But are there many wrecks?" asked Carrie. 

"Yes, a good many. In the last twenty years there 
have been enough wrecks on the lakes to put one every 
quarter mile all the way from Buffalo to Duluth." 

"Mercy on us !" cried Mrs. Woods, "why do you tell 
us such awful things just as we are about to start across 
the lake in an open boat?" 

"Don't worry, my dear," answered the Major, "this is 
a nice, clear day, and we'll be across almost before you 
know it. But there's our boat now. Don't you see it, 
over to the left? You can see from here that she's no 
rowboat or canoe." 

"What's she called, Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"Oh, I see!" cried James. "The K-a-y-b-a-y-o-s-a,— 
Kaybayosa. What does that mean. Uncle?" 

"I don't know, James. We'll have to ask the captain." 

ON LAKE MICHIGAN 

Captain Jackson met them at the pier, and inside of 
fifteen minutes the baggage and a huge lunch basket were 
safely stowed away under the seats in the little cabin for- 
ward, everybody was seated in the open space at the stern, 
and the "Kaybayosa" had backed away from the landing. 
As the boat gathered speed, James said : 

"Why, how quiet she is !" 

"That's because the exhaust is under water," answered 
Captain Jackson. "I don't like to have a little boat make 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 35 

as much racket as a wagonload of tin cans rolling down 
hill. It's bad enough not to be able to get away from the 
smell of the gasoline." 

"Captain Jackson," asked Carrie, ''what does 'Kay- 
bayosa' mean?" 

"It means 'the last of the hunters' and was the name 
of an Indian chief hereabouts when my father was a little 
boy." 

"But why did you name your boat after him?" per- 
sisted Carrie. 

"Oh, because she's swift and silent, and that's what a 
good hunter needs to be." 

After a few minutes Major Woods called attention to 
the big bay south of them. 

"That is Grand Traverse Bay, and we have just come 
out of Little Traverse Bay. Little Traverse is only about 
ten miles long, but Grand Traverse must be nearly thirty." 

"Why Traverse/ Uncle?" asked James. 

"I don't kno)v that I ever heard an explanation, but I 
imagine that the names are French translations of the oJd 
Indian names. You can be pretty sure they are French, 
because 'Grand Traverse' in English would be 'Big Cross- 
ing.' I suppose that the Indians named them so because 
they are the only places along the whole east coast where 
people Avho were traveling either north or south mu^t 
either cross the long stretch of open water at their 
mouths or else go a great many miles around. 

"Lucy, it must be something about the air, but I'm 
almost starved. Don't you think we'd better look into 
that lunch basket ?" 



36 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

Before they had finished eating they were rapidly 
approaching a channel between two small islands. 

"What are those islands, Captain Jackson?" asked 
James. 

''Those are the Fox Islands, and away to the south 
you can just see the Manitou Islands, behind which ves- 
sels sometimes seek shelter from storms." 

"Which side is 'behind,' Captain Jackson?" asked 
Carrie. 

"The side away from the wind. If the wind is from 
the west, then the water on the east side of the islands is 
the smoothest, because the islands help to break the force 
both of the wind and of the waves. Just look at the Fox 
Islands here as we go between them. What little wind 
we have today is from the north. Don't you see how 
much smoother the water is on the south side of North 
Fox than it is on the north side of South Fox ?" 

"What's that land away up north there?" asked James. 

"That's Beaver Island, the biggest one in the lake." 

"Beaver Island? Why, Uncle Jack, wasn't that where 
the Indians were going with Alexander Henry after they 
had captured him at old Fort Mackinac?" 

"Yes, that's the place. And Beaver Island has another 
claim to be remembered because it was there that a Mor- 
mon leader, James Jesse Strang, had a lively little king- 
dom between 1847 and 1855. Almost the only traces that 
are left of it now are two Biblical names. About the 
middle of the east side is a tiny stream called Jordan 
River, and down at the south end is a pond called Lake 
Gennesaret." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS Z7 

BEAVERS AND HATS 

"Were there beavers there, Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie. 

"I don't know about that. There may have been long 
ago." 

"Was beaver fur considered very fine?" asked James. 

"I don't know how it was in the early days. A beaver 
skin, you know, consists of a fairly thick hide, covered 
with a very fine soft fur, through which grows a thick 
coat of hairs nearly twice as long as the fur. When a 
beaver skin is to be made up into a garment, these long, 
coarse hairs are all pulled out, leaving only the soft fur. 
Today, beaver furs, which are very pretty, are in fair de- 
mand but are not especially fashionable. A couple of 
hundred years ago, when the pelts of all the fur-bearing 
animals were much more common, and therefore much 
cheaper than they are now, the beaver skin was so much 
the commonest that I imagine it was not highly prized. 
By 1800 the supply was already falling off, but even 
then one of the fur companies handled in a single year 
106,000 beaver skins, as against only 32,000 marten, 
11,800 mink, and 17,000 musquash or muskrat. 

"Among the fur traders the beaver skin was the unit 
of value. The Indians did not have any idea of currency ; 
if a trader had said to them, T'll give you three shillings 
for this beaver skin," and then added, T'll give you a 
pound of powder for three shillings,' the Indian wouldn't 
have understood. But his commerce was real 'trade.' 
He brought a beaver skin to the trader and asked for 
powder, and the trader would show him how much pow- 



38 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

der he could have in exchange. If the Indian wanted a 
gun he would throw upon the counter skin after skin 
until the trader was satisfied." 

"How many beaver skins did a gun cost, Uncle?" 
asked James. 

''That depended on the gun, on how far the trader 
was from Montreal, on how many rival traders there were 
in the neighborhood, and on the Indian himself. If he 
was a good hunter he would perhaps get better terms than 
if he were lazy and shiftless. At one of the Hudson's 
Bay Company's posts not long before 1700, a gun was 
worth from eight to twelve beaver skins according to its 
size and finish. At Mackinac in 1765, a gun was worth 
twenty skins. And I have heard tales of how unscrupu- 
lous traders would make the poor Indian pile skins flat 
upon one another until the pile pressed down tight was 
as high as the gun was long — and the trader expected to 
sell each skin for more than he paid for the gun! 

"But competition helped to prevent much of that kind 
of thing, though the Indian always got the worst of the 
bargain, and does still. The Hudson's Bay Company 
fixed a sort of standard for necessities. For many, many 
years, in the fur country a beaver skin would buy a knife, 
a one-pound axe, or a pound of shot or bullets. Powder 
cost two skins a pound, and brass kettles were sold by 
the pound, a pound of kettle being worth one skin. For 
luxuries, however, the Indian was made to pay outra- 
geously. A necklace of glass beads which cost the trader 
perhaps five cents would be exchanged for ten or a dozen 
skins, and worst of all, vile whisky which cost about 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 39 

eighty cents a gallon would be sold for that much or more 
a drink. 

"At Mackinac in 1765, as I have said, a gun was worth 
twenty skins, and beaver was then counted as worth two- 
and-six a pound." 

*' 'Two-and-six' a pound?" interrupted Carrie, "how- 
much is that?" 

"Two shillings and sixpence. A shilling is worth just 
about a quarter of our money, and a sixpence is about 
equal to twelve cents. Now if an average beaver skin 
weighed two pounds, how much would it be worth in our 
money ?" 

"A dollar and quarter," answered James promptly. 

"Well, then how much was a gun worth ?" 

"Twenty skins, did you say, sir? That would be 
twenty-five dollars. Was that a great deal to pay?" 

"That was probably more than twice as much as the 
gun had cost the trader ; and he expected to sell his skins 
for a great deal more than five shillings apiece." 

"But, Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "if beaver was so very 
common, did everybody in Europe wear furs?" 

"Oh, dear, no. The European demand for beaver 
skins grew up just about the time Champlain came into 
the St. Lawrence, and in a very interesting way. Late in 
Queen Elizabeth's reign, people generally began to wear 
hats, and the hatters of those days made their hats of fell. 
Perhaps you don't know that felt is not woven cloth, but 
is made of fine hairs beaten and pounded into a mass. It 
happens that beaver fur is not only very fine, but each 
separate hair, when looked at under a microscope, proves 



40 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

to be scaly, with the scales so firm that when a number 
of hairs are mixed up together, it is impossible to pull 
them apart without breaking them. As a result, beaver 
fur makes a very strong, fine felt, which in addition takes 
a beautiful polish. 

"Wasn't it interesting that a whole continent full of 
beavers should have been opened up just about the time 
that people in Europe all began to wear felt hats ! Well, 
after about two hundred years of beaver trapping, the 
supply of beaver fur became too small for the demand, 
and the hatters had to hunt for substitutes. At last some 
one discovered that silk plush could be used for high hats, 
and now no one talks of wearing a 'beaver,' as people 
used to, but only of 'silk hats' or 'top hats.' " 

"Well, well !" said James, "I didn't know that wearing 
hats had anything to do with the scarcity of beavers. 
Why, Uncle, it's just the same thing that makes some 
kinds of birds so scarce, isn't it?" 

THE FUR TRADERS 

"Just the same." .Then, after a pause, the Major con- 
tinued: "It's really a little hard to realize how all-impor- 
tant the fur trade was to the early white men. For in- 
stance, just a few years before Cadillac founded Detroit, 
the restless and daring Iroquois managed to get posses- 
sion of a part of the Ottawa River, and for more than 
two years prevented the bringing down of furs from the 
lakes to Montreal. The sufifering of the residents on the 
St. Lawrence was very great, because they were all trad- 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



41 



ers and merchants, depending on the Indians and trappers 
to buy their wares, and upon the furs which they took in 
exchange to pay for suppHes from Europe. The Iroquois 
kept up their blockade until Duluth gathered a small army 
of about two hundred zoyageurs and escorted the three 
winters' accumulations of furs from Alackinac to Mon- 
treal." 

"Uncle Jack,'' asked Carrie, "why have the fur traders 
gone north into Canada, instead of south?" 

"They have gone north gradually for several reasons. 
The fur trade has always depended on the supply of 2mld 
animals, and wild animals flourish only in unsettled coun- 
try. Just as soon as a man comes into a new country to 
live, he builds him a house and clears fields for his crops. 
Both of these things — the building of a house and the 
clearing of fields — mean cutting down the forest, and 
that drives away the wild animals. 

"In Michigan and Wisconsin, the lumberman has in 
some districts preceded the settler and driven out the 
game. Some kinds of game, I mean, for many animals 
manage to escape capture and keep their place even in 
districts which have long been settled. For example, 
down in central Illinois in the prairie country where there 
are only small patches of timber, and where practically 
all the land has been under cultivation for sixty or eighty 
years, minks and skunks are not uncommon, and to this 
day there are a few wolves." 

"Wolves right down in central Illinois!" cried James. 
*T supposed they would have been killed long ago." 

''Well, there is really a great deal of open space in 



42 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

that country. Your own fields may some of them be 
nearly a mile from your house, and there are many field 
corners which are at least half a mile from any house. 
A wolf is pretty good at. keeping out of sight, and at a 
distance looks so much like a dog that he escapes notice. 
Hedge corners and old straw stacks make good hiding- 
places for them. Almost the only way one knows that 
there is a wolf around is by hearing his bark in the dusk 
of a summer evening, or by finding a sheep torn and 
bloody. Then, once in a decade or so, someone comes 
upon a litter of wolf cubs. 

''But you asked, Carrie, why the fur hunters have gone 
north. Since the winters grow longer and colder the 
farther north you go, the settlers have come first into the 
warmer regions. That's one reason. Another is that, be- 
cause wild animals belong to the one who can catch them 
first, the trappers hunted first in the regions near at hand, 
and they have usually been regardless of the future. If, 
for example, a hunter comes upon a beaver dam back in 
the woods, he sets to work to trap all the beavers, for 
fear someone else will come along and get some of them. 
In that way many of our most valuable fur-bearing ani- 
mals have either grown very scarce or disappeared en- 
tirely from regions where they were once very abundant. 
When America was first discovered, beavers must have 
been very plentiful and very widely distributed. The 
Dutch, for instance, found them in the valley of the Con- 
necticut River." 

*'But didn't the Indians kill the beavers?" 

"Yes, but the coming of the white man changed the 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



43 



Indians' habits very greatly. Before the white man came, 
the Indians hunted only enough to furnish them with 
meat and with skins for clothing and for their houses. 
When they found a big colony of beavers they were 
careful not to kill them all, but left enough to keep up 
the colony. For the Indians, you see, the supply was 
greater than the demand. But the white man set them 
to getting skins for market. He not only furnished them 
with guns which increased their ability to kill game, but 
he induced them to spend more time in hunting by offer- 
ing them in exchange for furs most of the things which 
they had been in the habit of making for themselves. So 
the Indians soon stopped making themselves clothing out 
of skins, and cooking vessels out of clay, and weapons 
out of stone and copper. Instead they exchanged their 
furs for guns, powder, and shot, steel knives, axes, blan- 
kets, clothing, brass pots and kettles, and liquor. It is 
interesting to see how the very white men who most 
nearly adopted Indian ways nevertheless succeeded in 
enlarging the Indians' desires and changing the direction 
of their efforts. 

"Well, well, don't you think that's enough of a lecture 
for one afternoon ? Captain Jackson, isn't that Washing- 
ton Island just ahead of us?' 

"Yes, sir, that's Washington Island." 

"Why is it called that, Uncle?" asked James. 

"It was named in the summer of 1816 by the first 
company of American troops that ever came into Green 
Bay. They were on the sloop 'Washington,' and gave the 
sloop's name to both the island and a harbor on the north 



44 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



side. Captain Jackson, you'll take us by Death's Door, 
won't you?" 

"Very well, sir." 

"'Death's Door!'" said Carrie. "What a dreadful 
name !" 

"It's rather a dreadful place. For one thing, the 
water is deep there, and the cliff goes straight down, 
without a shelf. It's a dangerous place in a high wind or 
a storm, and there have been many bad wrecks there. I 
believe, however, that the name was given it not by the 
sailors but by the Indians long ago." 

"Is there a story about it. Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"Not much of one, but tragic enough. The bluff it- 
self, as I have said, is both high and steep. In the lake 
right under it was a little table of solid rock with a flat 
top perhaps thirty feet square, which rose about three 
feet above the surface of the water. Once upon a time a 
band of Indians in their canoes, bound for the French 
trading post at Mackinac, halted on this table to rest and 
eat a meal. While they were peacefully seated a sudden 
storm came up and swept such tremendous waves over 
the rock that their canoes were all dashed to pieces. The 
poor Indians couldn't stay on the rock, and as the bluff" 
was too steep to climb, they had to let the waves sweep 
them away and trust to being washed ashore farther on. 
But unhappily they nearly all perished.'' 

"What is that little island with the light on it. Captain 
Jackson ?" asked James. 

"That is Pilot Island, and it is in the entrance to 
Porte des Morts Passage." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 45 

"Porte des Morts," explained Major Woods, "is 
French for Death's Door." 

"Does anybody Hve on Washington Island?" asked 
Carrie. 

"Oh, yes," answered Major Woods, "a good many 
people, and among them over a hundred Icelanders." 

"Icelanders!" exclaimed Carrie. "Why, how funny!"* 

"Yes, it does seem so. But you must remember that 
Iceland has been growing colder little by little for several 
hundred years, and it has been harder and harder for its 
people to make a living. In 1872, I think it was, four 
Icelanders came to this country, and the man who acted 
as their agent thought they'd be happier near the water, 
so he guided them to Washington Island. The first four 
liked it there, and others came. They fish, and build 
boats, and farm. But there are several thousand Ice- 
landers up in Pembina County, which is in the northeast 
corner of North Dakota, and in Manitoba, which adjoins 
it on the north. They say that more than a tenth of the 
population of Iceland has emigrated to Canada and the 
United States in the last forty years." 

"And what is that island over there?" asked Carrie, 
pointing to a larger island to the right. 

"That is Plum Island," answered Captain Japkson. 

"Is that Death's Door?" asked James, pointing to the 
left. 

"No," said Captain Jackson, "that is Table Bluff. 
Deathdoor Bluff is on beyond, across Hedgehog Harbor." 

When at last they came opposite Deathdoor Bluff the 
children gazed at it with great interest. In a few minutes 



46 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



Captain Jackson turned the boat's course sharply until 
they were going nearly southwest, and announced : "Now 
we are in Green Bay." 




I^EAVFR-TOOTH ChISEL 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 



For the story of Cadillac (kad il lak') and his founding of 
Detroit, and for an acconnt of Father Jean de Brebeuf (zhon de 
bre buff') see "Lake Huron and the Country of the Algonquins." 

On a map find the Georgian Bay, Grand Manitoulin Island, 
Lakes Champlain and George, the Thousand Islands, Niagara 
Falls, Chautauqua, and the St. Clair Flats. 

The voyageurs (vwoy a jur") were the boatmen who took 
the canoes and supplies of the traders back and forth between 
the St. Lawrence and the frontier posts. 

On a map find Iceland. North Dakota. Manitoba. 

Some of the proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows : 

Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix (pe air' fron swa' zav i 
er' de shar leh vwa'). Kaybayosa (ky by o' sa). 



Spell, pronounce, and explain : 



isolated 

suitable 

conception 

unscrupulous 

substitute 

preceded 

perished 



landmark 

tremendous 

barrier 

necessities 

scarcity 

decade 

breakwater 



prospecting 

suggestion 

explanation 

outrageously 

accumulations 

distributed 

emigrated 



IN GREEN BAY 




As the ''Kaybayosa" moved 
swiftly' up Green Bay, Tarrie 
asked : 

"Are we in Wisconsin now, 
Uncle Jack?" | 

"Yes, this is Wisconsin." 

''What does Wisconsin 
mean?" asked James. 

"Well, it's clearly an Indian 
word. The French used to spell it 'Ouisconsin,' but no- 
body seems to know what it means. Dr. Reuben Gold 
Thwaites, who was Secretary of the Wisconsin State 
Historical Society for many years, said that according 
to one man it means 'muskrat house.' But Dr. Thwaites 
added that he asked a great many Indians what the word 
meant, and that no two of them had ever given him the 
same answer." 

Presently James said: "My! that looks like a big city 
over there. What place is it, Captain Jackson?" 

"That's really two places — Menominee, Michigan, 
and Marinette, Wisconsin. They're both on the Menom- 
inee River, which is the dividing line between Michigan 
and Wisconsin for a hundred miles or so." 

"Then, James," said Major Woods, "I wasn't alto- 
gether accurate when I told you we were in Wisconsin. 
But we are now." 



48 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

**How did Michigan happen to get territory on that 
side of the Straits of Mackinac?" asked James. 

**It was given by Congress as a sort of consolation 
for the loss of territory on the south. In 1784 Thomas 
Jefferson had a plan by which all the territory j^etween 
the Ohio and the Mississippi was neatly divided into 
states with queer Latin and Greek names. For instance, 
he proposed to call what is now the southern peninsula 
of Michigan 'Chersonesus' ; and what finally became Wis- 
consin he called 'Michigania.' The Ordinance of 1787 
ran a line east and west which just touched the southern 
end of Lake Michigan and left Toledo in Michigan. 
Ohio demanded and finally obtained the little strip which 
included Toledo, and Indiana also took a somewhat wider 
strip off of Michigan in order to have a frontage on 
Lake Michigan. Michigan therefore as a compensation 
was given its northern peninsula." 

As they came in sight of Sturgeon Bay a steamer 
which was a little ahead of them turned east into the 
bay. 

"Why, where's that steamer going?" asked James. 
"I thought it was bound for Green Bay." 

"No," answered Captain Jackson, "it's going on 
through to Chicago." 

"On through?" echoed James. "I didn't know we 
had an island to the left of us all this way! I thought 
it was a peninsula." 

"It was," said the Captain, "until they dug a canal 
from the head of Sturgeon Bay to Lake Michigan. It's 
a great convenience." 



THP: FRENCH EXPLORERS 49 

"How far is Green Bay from Mackinac, Uncle ^" 
asked James. 

"About two hundred and forty miles. A hundred 
years ago the trip took five days — if the weather was 
good. Chicago wasn't quite so far overland, but the 
mail carrier, who went on foot, took a month for the 
round trip." 

"On foot?" said Carrie. "Why, how much mail 
did he carry ?" 

"He was limited to sixty pounds. I''or provisions he 
carried only a small bag of hulled corn and another of 
cornmeal, because he expected to get his meals from the 
Indians he met on the way. The eastern mail for Green 
Bay came from Detroit by way of Chicago twice a year.. 
That sounds like stories of Alaska and the Northwest, 
doesn't it?'' 

JEAN N ICO LET 

"Who discovered Green Bay. Uncle?" asked Carrie. 
"The French?" 

"\^es, and they came into Lake Michigan and Green 
Bay long before any white man had seen Lake Erie. 
The first one to come this way was sent on purpose. He 
was Jean Nicolet, Samuel Champlain's interpreter. When 
Nicolet was still a youngster of twenty, Champlain had 
sent him to spend two winters among the Algonquins on 
Allumette Island, up the Ottawa River. Later he lived 
for several years with the Indians near Lake Nipissing. 
In July, 1634, under orders from Champlain, Nicolet 



50 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



started up the Ottawa in the same fleet of canoes with 
which Father Jean de Brebeuf traveled. When they 
reached the Georgian Bay at the mouth of French River, 
I-^ather Brebeuf and his party turned south, but Nicolet 




MouEKN Explorer 

with seven Hurons went on west through the North 
Channel to the Sault Ste. Marie — just the way we came 
last week. You remember, don't you, that he probably 
did not go above the rapids into Lake Superior, though 
he was so near. Instead he turned south to Michilimack- 
inac and on into Lake Michigan. Here he coasted along 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 51 

the west shore, around Point Detour and into Green Bay. 

"Nicolet's mission was to find the 'Ouinipegou,' as 
the Algonquins called them — that is, the 'men of the fetid 
(or stinking) water.' We call them today the Winneba- 
goes, which is only a different spelling of the Algonquin 
name. The French supposed that the 'fetid water' — as 
opposed to 'sweet water' — must mean salt water. They 
were the more certain of this because Champlain had 
also had reports of a 'great water,' on which men trav- 
eled in 'wooden canoes,' — the name they had given to the 
ships which had come up the St. Lawrence. All this 
sounded very much as if China must be only a little ways 
to the west, and not nearly so far from Europe as by the 
eastern route across Asia. Therefore if Champlain could 
only start trade with China by way of the lakes and the 
St. Lawrence, his fortune was made. 

"Well, the first inhabitants Nicolet found on Green 
Bay were the Menominees, which means the 'rice people/ 
because they were in the habit of gathering the wild rice 
which grows in the shallows and swamps along the bay. 
The Menominees told Nicolet that the long- sought Win- 
nebagoes were only a little farther on, and offered to 
conduct him to them. Nicolet then unpacked a carefully 
wrapped bundle which he had taken special care of on 
all that long, toilsome canoe trip from Montreal, and 
what do you suppose was in it?" 

"We couldn't ever guess. Uncle Jack," said Carrie. 
"Do tell us !" 

"It was a gorgeous robe of hand-embroidered silk 
damask. Nicolet was sure that he was to meet a party 



52 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

of Chinese Mandarins, and he wanted to be properly 
dressed. He did make a sensation, too ! I imagine those 
Indians were as much astonished at him as he was at 
them." 

''But, Uncle," said James, ''how could Champlain and 
Nicolet have been so fooled? What was the explana- 
tion ?" 

''Well, in the first place, the Winnebagoes came origi- 
nally from up around Lake Winnepeg, where there are 
some sulphur springs, and there is no question that sul- 
phur water is 'fetid' and not 'sweet.' Of course, if 
Champlain hadn't been so sure that 'fetid water' meant 
'salt water' — that is, the ocean — he perhaps wouldn't have 
misinterpreted 'great water.' Can't you guess what the 
'great water' really was?" 

"Could it have been the Mississippi?" asked James. 

"Yes, that's what it was — and, by the way, that's 
what the word Mississippi means. And the 'wood canoes' 
which Champlain thought must be ships were really 
canoes of wood instead of birch bark, that is, 'dugouts' in 
which the Sioux and Illinois traveled on the Mississippi. 

"Well, to get back to Nicolet himself. lie seems to 
have gone up Green Bay only as far as Red Banks, 
twelve miles down the bay from the mouth of Fox River. 
Discovery that the Winnebagoes were not Chinamen 
seems to have put a stop to Nicolet's explorations. But 
the idea of reaching China by going on westward was not 
given up, and continued to inspire explorers until, a 
long, long time after Nicolet, Lewis and Clark made 
their way across the Rockies to the Pacific coast." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 53 

PIERRE RADISSON 

"Who was the next white man after Nicolet?" 
"The next white man?" repeated Major Woods re- 
flectively. "There were two of them, Pierre Esprit, who 
was the Sieur Radisson, and his sister's husband, Medard 
Chouart, who was a Sieur des Groseilliers. ('Groseil- 
liers,' by the way, means 'gooseberry bushes,' and when 
the two men came later to have dealings with the Hud- 
son's Bay Company, Chouart often appears in the rec- 
ords as *Mr. Gooseberry!') Well, these two men, who 
were fur traders, left Quebec in August, 1654, and did 
not return until August, 1656. Twenty-nine other 
Frenchmen started with them, but after an attack by the 
Iroquois the twenty nine deserted them. Nevertheless, 
the two pushed on, and were the first white men to see 
Lake Superior. 

"Radisson kept a rough diary of his trip, which was 
lost sight of for over two hundred years, but was finally 
published. From it we know that these men came, as 
Nicolet had, along Lake Michigan, which they reported 
was *as large as the Caspian Sea' — not a very good guess, 
for the Caspian Sea is more than seven times as large as 
Lake Michigan. They also visited a 'great river' with 
*twQ branches, the one toward the west, the other toward 
the south, which we believe runs toward Mexico.' That 
description fits the Mississippi, and therefore it is almost 
certain that these two bold fur-traders came upon the 
Mississippi accidentally eighteen years before Marquette 
and Joliet. who journeyed expressly to find it. 



54 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

"Before Radisson and his brother-in-law returned to 
Quebec they visited the Sault Ste. Marie again, and as 
nearly as we can make out actually reached Hudson 
Bay — something like four hundred miles north. When 
they got back to the St. Lawrence with great bales of 
furs, they were fined by the authorities for trading in a 
region which had been assigned to another man, and 
felt themselves so ill-used that a dozen years later they 
piloted an English ship into Hudson Bay, and as a result 
an English company was formed under the patronage of 
Prince Rupert. 

THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 

*'It was styled in its charter The Governor and Com- 
pany of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson 
Bay,' though it has always been known simply as the 
'Hudson's Bay Company.' Because the company prom- 
ised to undertake the 'discovery of a passage into the 
South Sea' — that is, to the Pacific and China — it was 
granted 'the whole trade of all those seas, streights, and 
bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatever lati- 
tude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the 
streights commonly called Hudson's Streights, together 
with all the lands, counties, and territories ^pon the coasts 
and confines of the seas, streights, bays, lakes, rivers, 
creeks, and sounds aforesaid, which are not now actually 
possessed by any of our subjects, or by the subjects of 
any other Christian prince or State.' 

"That was a very liberal charter indeed, for it gave 
the Company not only a complete monopoly of the trade 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 55 

of a territory many times larger than Great Britain, but 
it also gave them absolute ownership of the land, with 
the right to appoint governors, make laws, hold courts of 
justice, and carry out their decrees, and make treaties 
with the Indians. Now what do you suppose the Com- 
pany was to give in return for all that?" 

"How should we know. Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie, 
reproachfully. 

"Well, I suppose you oughtn't to be expected to have 
any idea. The Company promised to pay every year, 
as long as it did any business in those regions, Tw^o Elks 
and Two Black Beavers.' As a matter of fact, however, 
the Company made the King a present of some stock 
in the Company, and when its governors went to pay him 
their very large dividends — often fifty per cent — they 
always paid the King in guineas instead of in pounds." 

"What's the difference, Uncle Jack?" asked James. 

"A pound is twenty shillings, while a guinea is 
counted as twenty-one shillings. Now, James, if the 
King's dividends were a hundred and fifty pounds, how 
much more would he get than the other stockholders?" 

"A hundred and fifty shillings." 

"Well, how many pounds would that be?" 

"Twenty into a hundred and fifty — is — seven pounds 
and— a half, isn't it?" 

"Yes. Now can you tell me what per cent, that would 
be?" 

"If he got a shilling more to the pound than the 
others, and there are twenty shillings in the pound, he'd 
get five per cent, more." 



56 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

"But what became of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
Uncle Jack?" asked Carrie. 

"Oh, it ruled its great empire for nearly two hundred 
years. Finally in 1870 it transferred its governing pow- 
ers to Canada, and since then has been merely a great 
fur-trading company." 

"Didn't it have any rivals, Uncle?" asked James. 

"Oh, yes, indeed. The Northwest Company was 
formed at Montreal a little over a hundred years later, 
and about the same time John Jacob Astor with his 
American Fur Company tried to drive the Hudson Bay 
people out of the United States. But after all, the great- 
est rival of the Hudson Bay Company was — and is— a 
French firm, which has given all its energies to buying 
and selling furs, without attempting any political or civil 
duties. The French, you must remember, were quicker 
than the English to take up with the Indian ways of 
living, made' friends with them more easily, and had been 
in the fur country a hundred years before the English 
came. The result was that the French trapper§ and 
traders, who legally had no right to enter the territory 
controlled by the Hudson Bay Company, were often able 
to catch the Indians on the way to the Company's posts 
and outbid the Company for the choicer furs. The rec- 
ords of the Company are full of complaints of what they 
called 'this underhanded business.' 

THE MISSION AT DE PERE 

"The first mission in the Green Bay country was 
founded in 1669-70 bv Father Claude Allouez. Allouez 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



57 



was the man who, three years before, had found copper 
on Lake Superior. Six miles up from the mouth of the 
Fox River, just below the first rapids, Ailouez established 
the 'mission of St. Francis Xavier at Green Bay.' From 
that mission those rapi'ds became known as the 'Rapides 
des Peres,' that is, 'rapids of the missionaries,' but loni< 
ago the name was shortened to De Pere." 

"P>ut, Uncle Jack," asked Carrie, "why did they go up 
to the rapids instead of settling at the mouth of the 
river?" 

"They had two or three reasons. You ought to be 
able to figure out at least one of them." 

"1 see one," said James. "At the rapids the Indians 
would have to make a portage, so it was a more natural 
stopping-place than the mouth of the river." 

"Right. That may be the chief reason. Another one 
was that where there are rai^ds the fish are more abun- 
dant than elsewhere." 

"But what was the third reason?" asked Carrie. 

"Well, why did white men settle near the waterfalls 
on the Mohawk and Oswego and Genesee Rivers?" 

"Oh !" said James, "to use the water-power." 

"Yes, that was what I had in mind. But I'm not sure 
the missionaries thought of that, for it was a long time 
before any use was made of the water-power. The first 
saw^mill there wasn't put up until 1809. 

"But I must tell you a little more about the mission. 
Not long after Marquette and Joliet passed up Green 
Bay on their voyage of discovery, a number of people of 
note touched there. Probably La Salle and Tonty were 



58 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

there in 1679, and it is likely that the 'Griffon' took 
aboard in Green Bay the cargo of furs with which she 
was lost on her trip back to the Niagara River. In 1683, 
in May, Duluth, a cousin of Tonty's, was at Green Bay 
and helped defend the stockade against the Iroquois 
who had come all the way from New York State to make 
trouble for their old enemies, the French. 

'The next summer, 1684, Baron La Hontan, a French 
traveler and adventurer, visited Green Bay and was guest 
at a great banquet. He took notes on the bill of fare, 
and from them we learn that he had boiled whitefish, cut- 
lets of buck's tongue, hazel hen (that is, a hen fattened 
on hazelnuts) , a bear's paw, and a bear's tail. The feast 
ended with a soup. For wine they had maple sugar 
beaten up in water. Wasn't that an interesting bill of 
fare for a banquet in the wilderness? Just think what 
fun he must have had telling his friends at court about it 
when he got back to Paris!" 

''Jimmie, just think of eating a bear's paw and a 
bear's tail!" exclaimed Carrie, with a shrug of disgust. 

**Why, I 'don't see that bear's paw would be any 
worse than pig's feet, and you know you're fond of 
them," answered James. "But, Uncle, do you think 
bear's paw would be as good as baked elephant's foot, 
with monkey-brain sauce?" 

''Horrors ! James !" said Mrs. Wood, "where on earth 
did you get hold of such things?" 

"Why, Aunt Lucy, that's what the King of Siam 
serves to guests he wants to pay special honor to." 

"Well, well," growled Major Woods, "if you children 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 59 

are through talking about outlandish things to eat, we 11 
get back to the story of Green Bay, 

NICOLAS PERROT 

'Two years later, that is in 1686, we have records of 
Nicolas Perrot, one of the greatest of the voyageurs. 
For years he had been a hunter and trader among the 
Indians, and had acquired such a knowledge of their 
various dialects and such influence over them that he was 
made governor of the Green Bay and Michilimackinac 
district. His special task was to harmonize and unite 
the remnants of the various tribes which had taken refuge 
there from the Iroquois, and see if he could not organize 
them to help the French put an end to Iroquois raids. 
"While Perrot was at Green Bay he gave to the church 
at the rapids a silver ostensorium, which has had a ro- 
mantic history. Within a year after Perrot gave this 
monstrance — which is the English translation of the 
Latin word 'ostensorium' — the church was burned down 
by some pagan Indians. Fortunately this relic was saved 
from the flames, but for fear of further attacks the mis- 
sionaries buried it in a garden, and when they went away, 
it was forgotten. In 1802, over a hundred years later, 
it was by chance dug up. In 1823 it was again used in 
a church Built near where the old one had been. A few 
years later this church also was burned. Then for ten 
years the relic was in a church at Detroit. At last it 
was brought back to Green Bay. Here it had still another 
strange escape, for thieves broke into the church and 
carried off nearly everything they could find. Fortu- 



60 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



nately they were captured, and confessed that they had 
buried their booty in the ground. 

'*Not long after that, it was deposited for safe keep- 
ing with the Wisconsin State 
Historical Society at Madison, 
because, aside from two old 
maps and the manuscript 
notes of Marquette and Joliet, 
this monstrance is the oldest 
relic of the white men in this 
part of the world. Here is a 
picture of it. It is made of 
silver and is more than a foot 
high. Because it has rays all 
around, it was called in 
French a 'soleil,' that is, a 
sun. Around the rim of its 
base is an inscription in 
French which means : ' This 
sun has been given by Mr. 
Nicolas Perrot to the mission of St. Francis Xavier at 
^Green Bay, 1686.' So you see that its date is not a mat- 
ter of guesswork, but was put on at the time Perrot gave 
it to the church." 

"It's too bad we can't see it," said Carrie. 

"Yes, it is. But we'll do the next best thing. We 

can see at Green Bay the oldest house in Wisconsin, and 

if it's pleasant weather tomorrow we can go up the Fox 

River, across Lake Winnebago, and on up to Portage. 

"I declare," continued the Major, as the ''Kaybayosa'' 




['f.rrot's Soleil 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 61 

came to the head of the bay, "I'm actually hungry, al- 
though I've done nothing since ten o'clock but sit idly in 
the stern here. It's something of a nuisance to have our 
physical needs thrust themselves upon our notice every 
lirtle while. But I'm not the first to say so. Old 
Odysseus, as I remember my Homer — Odysseus ! Oh ! 
perhaps you know him better under his Latin name of 
Ulysses — complained bitterly because his stomach im- 
periously demanded to be fed whether it was convenient 
or not. However, we'll soon be at the hotel. 

"Captain Jackson, how large a place is Green Bay 
now?" 

"About twenty-five thousand, sir." 

"Twenty-five thousand. That means that there are 
more white men in this one little spot than there were in 
all of New France west of Montreal when the English 
took Quebec. When was that, Carrie?" 

"September, 1759." 

"Good! Now, here we are. Let's say goodbye to 
Captain Jackson, and see if we are in time to get some- 
thing to eat at the hotel." 

On the way Carrie asked : "Hasn't this been our 
longest day's trip so far. Uncle?" 

"No, I think not. It has seemed long because you 
have had to sit still so much of the time. I think today's 
journey was no longer than the one we made last week 
from Killarney to Sault Ste. Marie. Only then you were 
on a bigger boat and could move around more. Suppose 
you and James look it up on the map and see." 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 



The Sioux (s65) Indians belong to the Dakotah group. 
The Frenchman, Daniel Greysolon Duluth (born near Paris about 
1647) seems to have been the first white man to visit them. 

Odysseus (o dis' seus), the "crafty Ulysses" (u lis' ses). is 
the hero of the Greek poet Homer's "Odyssey," which recounts 
his wanderings and adventures. 

The English pound is worth $4.86. How many dollars would 
a hundred and fifty pounds come to? The gold coin called a 
"sovereign" is worth twenty shillings, and since 1817 has dis- 
placed the "guinea," worth twenty-one shilling's. However, 
works of art and many other articles are still priced in "guineas."' 
On a map find the Caspian Sea ; Siam. 

Some other proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows : 

Jean Nicolet (zhon nik o lay') Win ne ba' goes 

Nicolas Perrot (nik 6 la' per ro') Me nom' T nees 
Claude Allouez (klod al loo ay') La Hontan (la on tri') 
Pierre Esprit de Radisson (pe air' es pre' de rad is so') 
Medard Chouart des Groseilliers (ma dar' shu ar' da gros 

a ya') 
Rapides des Peres (rap eed' da pear') 

Spell, pronounce, and explain : 



consolation 


accurate 


altogether 


frontage 


compensation 


provisions 


embroidered 


damask 


sensation 


misinterpreted 


diary 


expressly 


assigned 


patronage 


confines 


monopoly 


decrees 


reproachfully 


dividends 


legally 


underhanded 


outlandish 


harmonize 


remnants 




INDIAN NAMES 

"Now, children," said 
Major Woods after 
breakfast, "suppose we 
go and take a look at 
that old house of Joseph 
Roy's. It isn't anything 
very wonderful to look 
at. The marvel is that 
a log house in this part '^^^ ^^^^°" ^^"'^^ 

of the country should have lasted so long." 

"Why, I thought log houses were very strong, Uncle," 
said James. 

"They are. But I mean that it's a marvel that just 
a common log house shouldn't have been burned or torn 
down long ago. In new countries there is not usually 
much reverence for anything old. But Wisconsin has 
shown a rather unusual interest In its early history." 

"Why, it doesn't look like a log house at all !" said 
Carrie, as they stood in front of it. 

"No, because the logs are hidden by weatherboards. 
I suppose one of the early owners wanted his house to 
look up-to-date, but was too thrifty to tear it down and 
replace it. Still, a log house weatherboarded ought to be 
good and warm. Now, let's get down to the river and 
into our boat." 

"Oh, what a pretty little boat!" exclaimed Carrie. 



64 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



"Are \ye really going on it? What's its name? Oh, I 
see — 'Wauwatosa' — another Indian name, I suppose. Do 
you know what it means, Uncle?" 

*'Of course not, my dear. I know what some of these 
names of places mean, because I have read about them. 




josiiPH Roy's Cottage at Green Bay, 1766 

You'll have to ask the owner, who is going to run her 
for us. Mr. Winston, my niece wants to know the mean- 
ing of 'Wauwatosa.' Can you tell her?" 

**Yes, sir. 'Wauwatosa' means 'the Firefly.' I don't 
know whether it was a woman's name or not, but it 
sounds like one." 

"It's a pretty name," said Carrie. " 'Wauwatosa' — 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



65 



'Firefly' ! Jimmie, some day we'll make up a story about 

an Indian princess named Wauwatosa." 

"All right, Carrie. That's a good idea." 

"Why do they call this the Fox River, Uncle?" asked 

James, as they started off. "Were there lots of foxes 

around here?" 



^'1^ s/^^i^m^mm:im-n^ 




"Yes, only the Foxes were all Indians of the tribe 
that had the fox for a totem." 

"Uncle Jack," said Carrie, "on one map I saw this 
called the Neenah River. What does that mean?" 

"There is a little story about that. One of the early 
American settlers out here was much interested in the 
Indian names, and was always asking the Indians what 
they called various things. One day he was going along 
the bank and pointing to the river, asked an Indian 



66 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

what he called that. The Indian, not understanding that 
he wanted the name of the river, answered 'Neenah,' 
which is simply an Indian word for water. So the white 
man promptly adopted what he supposed was the Indian 
name of the stream, 'Neenah River,' which means noth- 
ing but 'water river.' 

At De Pere they stopped long enough to read the tab- 
let set up to mark the site of the old mission. Then on 
again, past Appleton, into Lake Winnebago. As they 
passed Oshkosh, Carrie asked if that was an Indian 
name, too. 

"Yes," answered the Major, "Oshkosh was the name 
of an Indian chief. And by the way, Prairie du Chien, 
at the mouth of the Wisconsin, was also named for a 
chief whose Indian name meant 'dog/ so that the French 
name really means 'Chief Dog's Meadow.' " 

MARQUETTE AND JOLIET 

"Uncle Jack, why are we coming up here?" asked 
Carrie. "Isn't it because Father Marquette came this 
way?" 

"Yes, and I suppose this is as good a time as any to 
tell you about him and his fellow explorer. It wouldn't 
do to overlook them, for no story of Lake Michigan and 
Green Bay would be complete without some account of 
Jacques Marquette, adventurous and devoted young mis- 
sionary, and Louis Joliet, equally adventurous young na- 
tive of Quebec. Marquette was for a time stationed at 
the Sault Ste. Marie, and while he was there some hunt- 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 67 

ers from the tribe of Illinois came to the mission and 
urged Marquette to visit them. He wrote back to his 
superiors that 'when the Illinois come to our mission 
they pass a large and wide river. It runs north and 
south, and so far that the Illinois, who do not know 
what canoes are, have not yet heard of its mouth. This 
large river can hardly empty into Virginia, and we ra- 
ther believe that its mouth is in California. If the In- 
dians, who promise to make me a canoe, do not fail to 
keep their word, we shall go into this river as soon as 
we can. . . . This discovery will give Us a complete 
knowledge of the southern or western sea.' 

"Evidently, you see, Father Marquette was a little 
better informed than Jean Nicolet had been, because 
Marquette understood that the 'great water' was a river 
and that he would find no Chinamen along its shores. 
But he did have the same hope that he would get to the 
Pacific and thus find that much-desired western passage 
to China. 

"Early in 1670, Father Claude Allouez, who had been 
spending the winter at Green Bay, went up the Fox 
River and across Lake Winnebago. He even got to the 
banks of the Wisconsin River — 'a, beautiful river,' he 
wrote, 'running southwest, without any rapid. ... It 
leads to the great river named Messissipi. which is only 
six days' sail from here.' But Allouez had other business 
on hand, and stopped on the brink of discovery. 

"By this time Father Marquette was at Michilimack- 
inac, watching for a chance to keep his promise to the 
Illinois. • At last orders came from Count Frontenac, and 




Father MARguEXTE 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 69 

Marquette and Joliet made ready for their voyage of 
discovery. They left Mackinac on May 17th, 1673, with 
five men in two birch-bark canoes — not a big expedition, 
you see. They were exactly a month in reaching the Mis- 
issippi at the mouth of the Wisconsin. In their first days 
on the Mississippi, Marquette reports that they saw deer 
and elk, wild geese and swans; later 'turkeys took the 
place of other wild birds, and wild cattle replaced other 
animals.' These wild cattle, which he goes on to describe, 
were bison, or buffalo, as we usually call them. For days, 
as they floated down the river they saw no trace of other 
human beings. At last, on the 25th of June, when they 
were perhaps somewhere near Rock Island, they saw a 
footpath leading aw^ay from the river. When Marquette 
and Joliet followed it, they came to three villages of the 
Illinois, whose people received them with great honor. 
At the door of the cabin in wdiich they were to be re- 
ceived stood an old man 'with his hands stretched out 
and raised toward the sun, as if he wished to screen 
himself from its rays, which nevertheless passed through 
his fingers to his face. When we came near him,' Mar- 
quette goes on, 'he addressed this compliment to us : 
"How beautiful is the sun, O Frenchmen, when thou 
comest to visit us ! All our town awaits thee, and thou 
shalt enter all our cabins in peace." He then took us into 
his cabin, where there was a crowd of people, who de- 
voured us with their eyes, but maintained the deepest 
silence. We heard, however, these words occasionally 
addressed to us : "Well done, brothers, to visit us !" ' 
Then the Frenchmen were offered the calumet or pipe of 



70 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

peace. Father Marquette describes this calumet as 'made 
of polished red stone, like marble, so pierced that one 
end serves to hold the tobacco, while the other is fas- 
tened on the stem, which is a stick two feet long, as 
thick as a common cane, and pierced in the middle. It 
is ornamented with the head and neck of different birds 
of beautiful plumage. Other large feathers, of green, 
red, and other colors are added to complete the cover- 
ing.' " 

'/My!" said James, ''that must have been a pipe for 
special occasions!" 

"It was. The calumet was the visible evidence that 
the tribe offered peace to the persons who smoked it. 
It was just as binding as if a treaty of peace had been 
written out and signed. Well, the Indians gave the 
strangers a great banquet, with of course the dog-tiesh 
which the Indians thought was their daintiest dish. 
Toward the close of the feast the Indian chief gave the 
Frenchmen an Indian slave and made a speech which I'll 
repeat to you as a good one to add to your specimens 
of Indian oratory. Here is Father Marquette's report 
of it: T thank thee, Blackgown, and thee. Frenchman, 
for taking so much pains to come and visit us. Never 
has the earth been so beautiful, nor the sun so bright as 
today. Never has our river been so calm, nor so free 
from rocks, which your canoes have removed as they 
passed. Never has our tobacco had so fine a flavor, nor 
our corn appeared so beautiful as we behold it today. 
Here is my son, whom I give thee, that thou mayest 
know my heart. I pray thee to take pity on me and all 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 71 

my nation. Thou knowest the Great Spirit Who has 
made us all; thou speakest to Him and hearest His word. 
Ask Him to give me Hfe and health, and come and dwell 
with us that we may know him.' 

**The explorers staid all night with the Indians, and 
when they left in the morning the chief and several hun- 
dred of his warriors escorted them back to their canoes 
and watched them as they went on down the stream. 
After a few days they passed the mouth of the Illinois, 
where Alton now is, and before they had finished talking 
about the horrible figures of monsters w^hich were in that 
day painted on the smooth rocks of the cliff, they reached 
the mouth of the Missouri with its muddy current. 

"Many days later they passed the mouth of the Ohio. 
Farther down they saw one morning some Indians armed 
with guns. But Father Marquette held up the peace- 
pipe which the Illinois had given him, and the Indians 
proved to be friendly. A little farther down they came 
to the mouth of the Arkansas, where again the Indians 
received the voyagers with great ceremony. Father Mar- 
quette tried on them all the Indian dialects he knew, but 
could not make them understand. At last, however, he 
found a young warrior who understood the language of 
the Illinois, and through him Marquette both asked and 
answered questions. The Arkansas Indians told him that 
the mouth of the river was ten days' journey on, but that 
along its banks were warlike tribes armed with guns 
which the Spaniards had given them. Marquette and 
Joliet debated the matter together, and although anxious 
to go on and confirm their belief that the river emptied 



72 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

into the Gulf of Mexico, they decided to go back, for 
they could not afford to risk being captured by the Span- 
iards. On the 17th of July, therefore, two months after 
they had left Mackinac, they started back up the river 
on thefr toilsome journey against the current. 

"When they reached the mouth of the Illinois, they 
left the Mississippi in order to visit the villages of the 
Illinois, as Marquette had promised. At the foot of the 
broad lake where now the city of Peoria has taken the 
place of Indian villages, Marquette preached to the In- 
dians for three days. Then, pushing on, he almost cer- 
tainly passed up the Desplaines through where there is' 
now a city named for his companion, down the Chicago 
River, and up the western shore of Lake Michigan past 
the site of Milwaukee to Green Bay, where he spent the 
winter. Thus, in four months Marquette and Joliet had 
made a canoe trip of about 2,500 miles, most of it over 
streams which white men had never traveled before." 

"Was that a fast trip. Uncle?" asked James. 

"(Jh, no, but Marquette and Joliet weren't after a 
speed record. About a hundred and fifty years later, 
however, another party made a trip from Mackinac that 
paralleled a good part of Marquette's, and they did it not 
for fun or adventure, but as a matter of business. Ram- 
say Crooks, who was one of the managers of John Jacob 
Astor's American h\ir Company, was at Mackinac and 
needed to get to St. Louis and back as quickly as possi- 
ble. So, with three passengers and seventeen zvyageurs 
to keep the canoes on the go, Crooks went to St. Louis 
by way of Green Bay, the Fox, Wisconsin, and Missis- 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS /^ 

sippi Rivers, and came back by the Illinois, the Des- 
plaines, and Chicago Rivers, and up Lake Michigan. 
They were only about a month in making the round trip, 
whereas Marquette and Joliet had been a month in getting 
to the mouth of the Wisconsin River. Of course, Mr. 
Crooks was not exploring in an unknown region, but 
knew exactly where he wanted to go and how to get 
there. Then, whereas Marquette and Joliet had only five 
men to paddle the canoes, Mr. Crooks had seventeen." 

PORTAGE 

When the "Wauwatosa" came at last to the entrance 
of the little canal which connects the Fox and Wisconsin 
Rivers, James said: "Why, Uncle, I didn't know there 
was a canal here. I thought we had to make a portage." 

"They used to, though I think I've read that in 1828 
the water was so high that troops from St. Louis floated 
across the strip here." 

''When was this canal dug, Uncle?" 

*Tn 1851, I think. But as you see, it isn't big enough 
to attract much commerce. It's very convenient for us, 
though. Notice, James," he continued, as they neared 
the town of Portage, "where the town is. Why should it 
be on the Wisconsin instead of the Fox River end of the 
portage ?" 

"I suppose because the Wisconsin is so nuich bigger." 

"Yes, and because people could go farther up the 
Wisconsin. The French traders had a 'jack-knife' post 
here verv earl v." 



74 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

"What's a 'jack-knife' post?" asked James. 

"A trading post that was a branch of another one, 
and was not open all the time. Apparently it got its 
name from the fact that it could easily be opened or 
closed. All the trader had to do was to unpack his load 
of goods, and he was ready for business. 

"Now," the Major went on, as they entered the Wis- 
consin River, "we've jeally done a little better than Fa- 
ther AUouez did. He stood on the bank, but we have 
no record that he actually embarked on the stream itself." 

"Oh! I wish we could go on!" cried Carrie as Mr. 
Winston, at a sign from the Major, turned the boat back 
up the river. 

"So do I," said James. "It seems to me that we are 
always turning back, or going somewhere else when it 
would be so interesting to go on." 

"That's always the way, children," answered the Ma- 
jor cheerfully. "Only you must remember that usually 
the things we turn aside to see are just as interesting and 
just as well worth seeing as those we might find if we 
went on. We started out to see something of the Great 
Lakes. A trip on the Ohio or the Mississippi or the 
Missouri, or up into Canada, or out to the Pacific coast, 
or across to Europe would also have been interesting and 
profitable. But we can't see everything in one trip. 
Don't you know that?" 

"Yes, we see, Uncle," said Carrie. "We didn't mean 
to complain, did we, Jimmie? But we can't help, some- 
times, wishing we could see more even than we do" 

"To tell the truth," admitted the Major, "I feel very 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 75 

much as you do. For instance, it would have been nice 
to have spent more time around the head of Green Bay." 

**Why, Uncle?" asked both the children together. 

"Well, I'll tell you while we are eating lunch, for we 
must get back to Portage, now that we have had at least 
a glimpse of the Wisconsin." 

THE ONEIDA STONE 

At lunch the Major took up his story again. 

"Do you remember, children," he said, "that when 
we were in the Mohawk Valley 
we learned that there were 
about two thousand Oneida, 
Indians near Green Bay?" 

*'Yes, sir, I remember," an- 
swered James. 

"But we didn't learn then, 
did we, how and when the tirst 
of them came out here?" 

"No, sir, I don't think we 
did." 

"Well, I am told that they 
came out here in the summer 1-i-fazar wh.liams 

of 1821 on the first steamer that ever came into Lake 
Michigan. Can't you tell me what one that was?" 

"Oh, yes, of course. Uncle," cried Carrie, "it must 
have been the 'Walk-in-the-Water.' Wasn't it?" 

"Yes, you are right. Their leader was a Rev. Eleazar 
Williams, a man who had grown up among them, and 
whose mother was a halfbreed squaw. A good many 




76 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



years later, when he was over fifty years old, he claimed 
that he was really the 'lost Dauphin' of France!" 

"What's a — a — what-d'ye-call-it, Uncle?'' asked Car- 
rie, as the Major paused a moment. 

"What's a 'dauphin?' In the days when France was 
a kingdom instead of a republic, the dauphin was the 

heir to the throne, usually 
the king's oldest son, just 
as the heir to the throne 
in England is called the 
Prince of Wales, and the 
heir to the throne in Ger- 
many is called the Crown 
Prince." 

"But what dauphin 
was lost, Uncle?" asked 
James. 

"Do you remember that when Louis XVI was King 
of France there was a great revolution, and Louis and 
his Queen, Marie Antoinette, were both put to death?" 
"Oh, yes, that was in the Reign of Terror, wasn't it?" 
"Yes. Now, as a matter of fact, we have perfectly 
good evidence that the little dauphin, the son of Louis 
XVI and his Queen, died in prison on June 8th, 1795. 
If he had lived and could have taken the throne he would 
have been Louis XVII. The queer thing is that there 
have been altogether more than twenty-five different peo- 
ple who have claimed that it wasn't little Louis XVII who 
died in prison, but another child who was put in his 
place ; and that the real dauphin was smuggled out of 




An Oi.n Onfiim Carin 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS // 

the country by friends. Of course each one of these 
twenty-five or more people has pretended to be the real 
heir to the throne of France. Rut it does seem strange, 
doesn't it, that a man whose life was known from his 
birth, who was beyond question the son of a halfbreed 
Indian woman, should have seriously pretended that he 
was the lawful heir to the throne of France !" 

''Did anybody believe him?" asked James. 

'*Oh, yes, a good many people who had no way of 
really looking into the truth of his story. Williams was 
about the right age, and he did look a good deal like the 
Bourbon family to which the French kings belonged. But 
looking like a Bourbon didn't make him one." 

''Uncle Jack," asked Carrie," did we learn what 
Oneida means?" 

"No. I don't think we did, but I can tell you. Ac- 
cording to their own traditions, the Oneidas are de- 
scended from two Onondagas who were brothers. Long, 
long ago, so far back in the years that even the Oneida 
chronicles do not tell how many generations ago it was, 
these two brothers with their squaws left their own 
camping grounds among the Onondagas, and built wig- 
wams on the bank of the Oneida River, near where it 
flows out of Oneida Lake. Some time after they were 
settled comfortably in their new location there appeared 
near it, so the tradition goes, an oblong,- rounded stone, 
different in color and substance from any other rocks 
around in that neighborhood. To the Indians, this stone 
was obviously sent from heaven, and so it became their 
sacrificial altar and the center of their worship. It also 



78 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



gave a name to their children, for they were known to 
the other Indians round about as 'Oneidas' — 'the people 
of the stone.' 

"In course of time, the Oneidas moved their village, 
after the Indian fashion, in order to be nearer good hunt- 
ing grounds, or to find fresh fields for their corn and 
beans and pumpkins. When they had moved — accord- 
ing to the legend — the miraculous stone followed them 




First Oneida Church in Wisconsin 

and took its place near their new home. And so, down 
through the generations, whenever the Oneidas moved 
their chief village, the stone also was miraculously moved, 
and they were thus able always to celebrate in its shadow 
their sacred rites at each harvest moon and each new 
year." 

''What became of the stone, Uncle?" asked James. 
"It is now in the cemetery at Utica, New York." 
"Why didn't it follow them out to Wisconsin ?" asked 
Carrie. 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 79 

"Some years ago it was proposed to bring the stone 
out here, but the last of the old chiefs, Onan-gwat-go, 
who had become, as the Rev. Cornelius Hill, the first 
native minister of the tribe, opposed it. A majority of 
the Oneidas are Episcopalians, and the old chief pointed 
to the fine stone church which the Oneidas had built, and 
said to them. This is now the Oneida stone.' " 



NOTES AND QUESTIONS 

On the map trace Marquette's voj-age from Mackinac to the 
Arkansas River and back to Green Bay. 

For some details about Fron te nac' see "The Mohawk 
Valley and Lake Ontario." 

What city in Illinois is named for Marquette's companion? 
Find it on a map. 

For the Oneidas, On on da' gas, and the other Iroquois (ir' o 
kwoy) tribes, see "The Mohawk Valley and Lake Ontario." 
For an account of the "Walk-in-the-Water" see "Lake Erie 
and the Story of Commodore Perry." 

The trip from Killarney to the Sault Ste. Marie is told of 
in "Lake Huron and the Country of the Algonquins." 

Some other proper names in this chapter are pronounced as 
follows : 

Wau wa to' sa Prairie du Chicn ( pra rie doo sheen') 

Spell, pronounce, and explain : 

reverence weatherboards thrifty 

totem bison buffalo 

calumet evidence daintiest 

confirm paralleled embark 

profitable dauphin heir 

smuggled generations oblong 

sacrificial altar miraculous 

celebrate cemetery rites 




The Great Lakes Portages 



EARLY BUILDINGS IN WISCONSIN 




After lunch James and Car- 
rie ran back to have a last 
look at the beautiful Wisconsin 
River. 

"Don't be gone more than 
half an hour. Children," said 
Major Woods. "We mustn't 
miss that train to Milwaukee." 

"All right, Uncle, we 
won't!" they called. And they came back sharp on time. 
The train was a few minutes late, so while they were 
waiting at the station, Major Woods showed them a 
couple of pictures he had found. 

"Wisconsin was organized as a territory in 1836," he 
told them, "and the building in which the first territorial 
legislature met is still standing, though it is now used 
as a barn. Isn't that a \)Wm old building? But it nnist 
have been the finest building in Madison then. 

"Now, this is where Governor Doty, the first terri- 
torial governor, lived. His house, you see, wasn't much 
more imposing than Joseph Roy's at Green Bay, 
which was about seventy years older. But, as your copy 
books used to tell you, 'Great oaks from little acorns 
grow,' and west of the Alleghanies our States have 
grown up with a rapidity that has amazed the world. 

"Wisconsin has nearly two million and a half people 



82 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



— to be sure, that isn't many more than there are in Chi- 
cago — but these towns and cities and these farms have 
grown up in the wilderness within a hundred years." 

"Where have the people all come from, Uncle?" 
asked James. 




Meeting-Place of Fikst Territorial Legislature 

"h'rom the east and the south, and from every coun- 
try in Europe. And that is especially true of Wisconsin. 
Indeed, Dr. Thwaites thought that probably no State, 
with the possible exception of Pennsylvania, has a greater 
variety of foreign-born people. The United States is 
very different from Europe in that. In some of the 
great European capitals — London, Paris, Berlin — you 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



83 



will find small 'colonies' from the other nations. But 
there are no great tracts of land in any European country 
occupied by members of another nation. France, for in- 
stance, has no colonies of Englishmen or Germans. But 




Residence of Governor Doty 



in Wisconsin and the other States around here you will 
find whole counties where nearly all of the people are 
Germans, or Swedes, or Norwegians, or Poles, or Swiss." 
"But what brought them?" persisted James. 



84 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

*'The chance to be free from military service, and 
above all the opportunity to own their land and to live 
better than they could in their ov^n country. Then, too, 
their children have here a somewhat better chance of 
rising in the world. — But there's the train at last." 

THE MAN IN THE MOON 

Soon they were comfortably seated and the train was 
carrying them swiftly toward Milwaukee. For a time 
the children were content to look out of the window. 
After a while they passed through Oconomowoc. 

"What a funny name!" said Carrie. ''But then, most 
of these Indian names sound queer. Do you know what 
that one means. Uncle Jack?" 

''Yes. Oconomowoc means 'beaver dam woods.' By 
the way, speaking of beavers, some Indians away up in 
the Canadian Northwest are called Beaver Indians, and 
I was reading not long ago one of their legends which 
tells how there came to be a man in the moon. It goes 
like this : 

"Ages and ages ago, when the earth was very young, 
there was a childless couple. The woman lived on ber- 
ries and parched maize and the meat of the animals they 
killed, but the man, for some reason which is not given, 
lived altogether on the blood of animals. One afternoon, 
as he started off on a hunting trip, he ordered his wife 
to be sure and boil him a kettle of blood for supper. The 
story is so old that nobody any longer knows why the old 
woman acted as she did, but for some reason she pierced 
a vein in her left arm and let some of her own blood run 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



85 



into the kettle of moose's blood. She stirred it all to- 
gether carefully, put it on the fire, and boiled it for her 
husband's supper. When he came back from his hunt, 
his wife served some of the blood on a bark dish. Her 
husband took a spoonful of it, and knew at once what 
she had done. But' he only said it didn't smell good, and 
emptied the whole kettleful over her head. After he had 
had his smoke he went to bed, telling his wife to be sure 
and look at the moon about midnight. She lay down too, 
and waking after her first nap, discovered that her hus- 
band had gone away. So she made up the fire to keep 
off the wolves, and then, remembering his command, 
looked up at the moon. There in the round full moon 
was her husband, and with him his dog and the kettle." 

"What a queer story !" said Carrie. "The one I know 
says that the man in the moon was a bad old man who 
was put there because he gathered firewood on Sunday. 
But I can't make head or tail of the Indian story. Was 
the man put there to punish him for throwing the kettle 
at his wife? Or did he go there to punish her for trying 
to make him eat some of her blood?" 

'T'm sure I don't know, my dear," answered the Ma- 
jor. "I'm only telling you the story as I heard it." 

MILWAUKEE— A COUNCIL PLACE 

"Uncle Jack," asked James, after a pause," is Mil- 
waukee an Indian name?'' 

"Yes, I think it is. The first mention of the place that 
I have found goes back to 1680, and is an account of an 
Indian village on the River 'Melleoki.' About twenty 



86 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

years later a French trader found this same village of 
Mascoutins, Foxes, and Pottawottamies on the River 
'Milwarik.' Possibly the different tribes had a different 
way of pronouncing the same name, but more likely the 
differences are due to the careless spelling of the traders. 
So far as I can find out, Milwaukee is a Pottawottamie 
word which means *a great camp, to talk as friends, 
where everybody comes and nobody fights.' Now what 
kind of a place would you call that in English?" 

"Please say that over again. Uncle Jack." 

" 'A great camp, to talk as friends, where everybody 
comes and nobody fights.' " 

**0h! I see!" cried Carrie. "That means a 'council 
place.' " 

"Exactly that, and perhaps I can help you to remem- 
ber it by telling you a little story connected with it. A 
great many years ago, before ever the white men had 
come into this region, the Menominees and the Winne- 
bagoes had a quarrel. Nobody remembers now what the 
quarrel was about, but there was a good deal of hard feel- 
ing and there had been a few fights between touchy young- 
bucks of the two tribes. The elders summoned a great 
council to meet at Milwaukee, and after the orators of 
both tribes had talked things all over, they were ready 
to make peace — all but one man, As-kee-no, a Winne- 
bago chief, who absolutely refused to arbitrate or to let 
his own warriors accept any peace arranged by the 
others. 

"Old As-kee-no, however, had a favorite and, of 
course, lovely daughter named Nis-o-was-sa, or Day 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 87 

Sleep, who wanted peace. Why she was so anxious to 
avoid war is not told, though it would not be hard to 
guess that she had a lover among the Menominee war- 
riors. At any rate, Nis-o-was-sa implored her father to 
join the others in making peace with the Menominees, 
but in vain. As a last resort, therefore, Nis-o-was-sa 
came into the council, made a brief but eloquent speech 
in favor of peace, then turned to her father and once 
more begged him to yield. When he refused angrily, she 
drew a knife from beneath her blanket and stabbed him 
to the heart. Then, turning to the astonished council, 
said to them calmly : 'Now you may be at peace. There 
is no one to hinder/ " 

"What do you think of Nis-o-was-sa, Uncle Jack?" 
asked Carrie. *'Was she very patriotic, or very wicked? 
I think it was fine of her to want the two tribes to be at 
peace, but I think it was awful for her to kill her father." 

'T don't know, Carrie," answered her uncle thought- 
fully. 'The Indians evidently looked upon her as a 
heroine, and thought that her willingness to sacrifice 
even her father was the greatest proof she could have 
given of her devotion to what she thought the best inter- 
ests of the tribe. I suppose it would hardly do to judge 
her by our standards. 

ASHWAUBENON—SIDELONG LOOKS 

"But there is another place name I happen to think 

of, which has a long story connected with it. This time, 

it is a pleasant story, and you won't be puzzled by any 

moral. The place is Ashwaubenon, a village not far from 



88 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

Fort Howard, over on Green Bay. The name, however, 
should have been Ashawaubomay, that is, 'Side Looks.' 
The man who said so was named Andrew Vieau, and as 
he was born on the site of the village and was asked to 
give it a name, he ought to have known." 

" 'Side Looks !' What a funny name !" exclaimed 
Carrie. ''What is the story, Uncle Jack?" 

"As Vieau tells it, the incident happened about 1795. 
An Ottawa Indian, the young son of a chief at L'Arbre 
Croche — do you remember that, Carrie?" 

"Yes, sir. L'Arbre Croche means 'Crooked Tree,' 
and was the old name for Harbor Springs." 

"Well, this youngster came to Green Bay, and because 
he was a handsome but modest young man, athletic, quick 
of eye, and slow of speech, he was made much of by an 
old Menominee chief named Ahkeeneebeway, or Stand- 
ing Earth. 

"One day, after our young Ottawa had been at Green 
Bay several months, a number of the young Menominee 
squaws went blueberrying. — Did either of you ever go 
blueberrying ? No? Well, it's lots of fun. — In the 
course of the day the squaws became more or less scat- 
tered in the thickets, and when in the middle of the after- 
noon they had all filled their bark buckets and were ready 
to start home, one of them was missing. They called 
her, and waited quite a while, but as they found no sign 
of her, they got frightened and hurried back to the vil- 
lage. 

"The young warriors promptly turned out to hunt for 
the missing squaw, and after several days they found a 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS '69 

trail leading- westward. The old warriors at once con- 
cluded that the squaw had been kidnapped by the Chip- 
pewas. So the Menominees held a council and decided 
that a band of fifty warriors should go to the Chippewa 
village on Lake Shawano, demand the girl, and bring 
her back. When Chief Standing Earth called for volun- 
teers, our young Ottawa was the first to respond. As 
soon as the war party had been made up. Chief Standing 
Eartli appointed the young Ottawa as leader. At first 
the Ottawa refused, but when Standing Earth insisted, 
he said modestly : 'Since it is your wish, I will take the 
command and do my best.' 

"The war party went rapidly oft" along the well-l^eaten 
trail, silently and in single file, and reached Lake Shawano 
soon after sundown. That night they slept in the under- 
brush. At daybreak the Ottawa aroused them, and when 
they had crept up close to the Chippewa village, he whis- 
pered to them: "Keep still. I myself will go into the vil- 
lage. Do not stir till I give the warwlioop. When I do 
give it, then strike, cut, and kill. But meanwhile, do not 
stir.' 

"So in the chill of the early morning, while the Chip- 
pewa hunters were all out killing game for breakfast, 
the young Ottawa slipped noiselessly into the silent vil- 
lage, and cautiously lifting the mat which hung over the 
doorway of the nearest wigwam, he peered in. He saw 
only two old squaws, still sound asleep. Thus he went 
through the village, looking into every wigwam until at 
last he found the stolen squaw in a long lodge guarded 
bv several withered old squaws. Letting the mat drop 



90 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

back behind him, he entered the lodge, stepped up to 
the girl, and without a word beckoned to her to follow 
him. As the two of them passed out of the doorway, the 
old squaws did not stir from their places, but gave him 
sidelong glances full of hate and threats. When he had 
safely brought the girl outside, the Ottawa was strongly 
tempted to go back and tomahawk the old squaws, but 
fortunately thought better of it, gathered up his warriors, 
and started back. The Menominees, warned of their re- 
turn with the rescued squaw, came out on the trail to 
meet them." 

"Was that the end?" asked Carrie. 

''Oh, no. The next day, at a great council, the young 
Ottawa was praised for his skill and prudence, and as a 
reward was urged to choose two squaws from among the 
maidens of the village. But the young Ottawa was still 
both modest and prudent. Tf I were a double man,' he 
told them, T suppose Td need two wives. But I'm not.' 
So he chose old Standing Earth's youngest daughter, 
Wahbemukqua, the 'Morning Star.' " 

"But, Uncle," said James, "how does the village of 
Ashwaubenon get its name?'' 

"Because old Andrew Vieau was born in the village 
from which the Menominee squaw was rescued, and 
when he was quite an old man, the white settlers came 
there and appealed to him for a name. So he, remem- 
bering the story, called the place 'Sidelong Looks.' But, 
as I said at the beginning, the settlers didn't catch the 
w^ord exactly and got a name that only sounds a little 
like it." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 91 



BLACK HAWK 

"But," said Major Woods, after a pause, "I've al- 
most forgotten to say anything about one of the most 
exciting events in the early history of Wisconsin — the 
Black Hawk War. Black Hawk w^as chief of those Sacs 
and Foxes whose chief village was down in Illinois near 
the mouth of the Rock River. The two tribes had many 
cleared fields around this village, and also had there the 
graves of their ancestors. Now, although by treaty the 
Indians had a right to the use of the land so long as it 
belonged to the national government, white settlers who 
disliked and distrusted Indians in general 'squatted' on 
the Indians' fields while the tribes were away on their 
annual hunt. When the Indians came back they found 
the white men in possession. Finally, when Black Hawk 
and his warriors returned in the spring of 1830, they 
found that the whites had even plowed under the graves 
of their ancestors. The Indians tried to get the 'squat- 
ters' to leave, but the whites appealed to the governor of 
Illinois who at once ordered the Indians out of the State. 

'Tn 1832 the whites grew excited over what they 
tried to believe were Black Hawk's plans for uniting all 
the tribes of the northwest for a general war on the set- 
tlements. As a result eight thousand volunteer militia 
joined fifteen hundred regulars in driving out of Illinois 
four hundred Indian warriors and their women and chil- 
dren, all of them starving because the whites had taken 
their fields. 



92 



LAKE MICHIGAN AND 



''Although the Black Hawk War was mostly in Illi- 
nois, the settlers in Wisconsin were also concerned, for 
the Winnebagoes were friends of the Sacs and Foxes. 
The little garrison at Fort Howard was sent to the front 
under its commander. Major Zachary Taylor. Another 
officer in the regular army was Lieutenant Jefferson 
Davis, and one of the Illinois captains of militia was 
Abraham Lincoln. Doesn't it seem odd that a little In- 
dian scare on the frontier should have brought into tlie 
same army two men who were to become Presidents of 
the United States, and another who was to be President 
of the Confederacy !" 

"But you haven't told us what became of Black Hawk, 
Uncle!" said Carrie. 

"Oh, his people were defeated and butchered, even 
to most of the women and children, but Black Hawk 
himself escaped. After the war was over he surrendered, 
but did not live many years. He was really a great man, 
more like Joseph Brant than he was like Pontiac, for 
Black Hawk nursed no plans of revenge, as Pontiac dia, 
but like Brant looked after the best interests of his peo- 
ple. Not long before his death he said to some white 
men: *Rock River was a beautiful country. I loved my 
village, my cornfields, and the home of my people. I 
fought for them. They are now yours. I have looked 
upon the Mississippi since I was a child. I love the great 
river. I have always dwelt upon its banks. I look upon 
it now, and I am sad. 1 shake hands with you. We are 
now friends.' '' 



IVAR AND PROSPERITY 




Early the next morning Ma- 
jor Woods escorted his party 
to the harbor, where they took 
the Pere Marquette car-ferry 
to Ludington. Though the sun 
shone bright and the air was 
clear, the wind was sharp and 
cold, and by the time Milwau- 
kee was out of sight everybody 
was glad to take refuge in the cabin. For a little while 
James and Carrie talked about the time two years before 
when their father had brought them from Chicago to 
Milwaukee on the great whaleback, the "Christopher 
Columbus." Presently Major Woods said: 

"Children, I have talked to you a good deal since we 
left Montreal about the influence of geography and geol- 
ogy on history. But I don't want you to get the idea thai 
geography always determines history. Wisconsin, as it 
happens, has had its settlement and growth very much 
afifected at times by matters that geography had little or 
nothing to do with. 

"One of the first of these instances was the Black 
Hawk War which we were talking about yesterday. You 
might think that reports of an Indian uprising would be 
very poor advertising for a region. It happened, though, 



94 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

that the Black Hawk War lasted just long enough and 
seemed important enough for several Eastern newspapers 
to send out war correspondents. When they got out here, 
however, there wasn't enough news about the war to fill 
their columns, so they made up for the lack of stories 
about battles by describing the country as they saw it in 
southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois. Their accounts 
of the climate and the scenery and the opportunities for 
farming were so enthusiastic that as a result immigration 
into this region became at once very heavy, and led within 
a few years to the admission of Wisconsin as a 
state." 

"When was that. Uncle?" asked James. 

'*In May, 1848. And that brings me to a second in- 
stance of what I have just been speaking of. In 1848, as 
it happens, there was a revolution in Germany, and many 
thousands of Germans sought refuge and freedom in the 
United States. The fact that Wisconsin had just been 
admitted to the Union attracted their attenion. They 
found, when they inquired into matters, that the surface 
of Wisconsin was covered with timberlands and that its 
soil was rich in minerals. In these respects, and in its 
climate, it was much like the Fatherland they were leav- 
ing. Moreover, there were two other points which deter- 
mined their choice : Wisconsin had practically no state 
debt, and its constitution allowed aliens to vote after only 
one year's residence — " 

"What's an 'alien,' Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"An alien is a foreigner. You see, it was sheer co- 
incidence that a revolution in Germany and the admission 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



95 



to the Union of a state with Hberal naturalization laws 
should have come at the same time." 

"My, what big words, Uncle," interrupted Carrie 
again. "Please tell me what 'naturalization laws' are." 

"The naturalization laws, my dear, are the laws which 
tell how a foreigner may become a citizen, how he may 
acquire the same rights 
that a native has natur- 
ally, that is, how a for- 
eigner may get the right 
to vote." 

"What were some of 
the other cases, Uncle?" 
asked James. 

"The other instances 
I have in mind were both 
connected with the Civil 
War. From its begin- 
ning until some time 
after General Grant cap- 




tured Vicksburj 



the 



Harbor in 1860 



MlLWAUKliK 

lower Mississippi was closed to commerce from the north, 
therefore all the products of the upper Mississippi, which 
had naturally gone to market by being floated down the 
river, had to seek other outlets. There was already a 
railroad from Prairie du Chien, on the Mississippi, to 
Milwaukee, and since Milwaukee was on the lake, the 
commerce which had been going down the Mississippi 
turned eastward. The result was an immediate and very 
great increase in the importance of Milwaukee, which 



96 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

undoubtedly grew very much faster than it would have 
done under normal conditions. Then, when the Missis- 
sippi was again opened to commerce, a great deal of 
traffic had got into the way of going east instead of south, 
and kept on going eastward. 

'The Civil War also stimulated two very different 
industries in Wisconsin. When Virginia seceded from 
the Union and joined the Confederacy, it cut off a great 
part of the supply of wrapper tobacco — " 

"What kind of tobacco is that?" interrupted James. 

"Wrapper tobacco is a smooth, thin-leaved tobacco 
which is used for the outside wrapper of cigars. Well, 
Wisconsin had already been raising some wrapper to- 
bacco, but the great demand led to a large increase in the 
quantity raised in Wisconsin, and Wisconsin has managed 
to keep a large part of the market which it found then. 

"The other industry which was stimulated by the 
Civil War was the raising of sheep for their wool. The 
war between the North and the South raised the price of 
cotton so high that more people used wool, and that of 
course meant a better market. So, you see, geography is 
only one of many things that affect the growth and pros- 
perity of a region." 

THE GREAT LAKES PORTAGES 

"Uncle Jack," asked James, "why did the French 
come down the west shore of Lake Michigan instead of 
down the east side? They stopped at Mackinac Island, 
and it doesn't look any farther across to Mackinaw City 
than it does to St. Ignace." 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 97 

**1 suppose the real explanation goes back to the In- 
dians," answered Major Woods. "What Indians lived 
along the Ottawa River?" 

"The Ottawas and the Hurons." 

"Yes, and you remember, too, that we found UtLiwas 
all the way along the North Channel and down around 
Mackinac. It is said that the name Ottawa means 'the 
traders,' and there is no doubt that the Indians have al- 
ways been keen traders. When Jacques Cartier lirst 
sailed up the St. Lawrence in 1534, he found fleets of 
Indian canoes which had come down the river to trade 
with the seacoast Indians. ATore than three hundred 
years later, when Margaret Fuller visited ]^lackinac Is- 
land, she found gathered there over two thousand Indians 
who had just come in from distant villages and made 
their camps, and were waiting for trade and the annual 
payments due them from the government. These Indians 
of 1848 were doing just what their ancestors had been 
doing for generations. 

"Now you ask why the French should have come 
down the west shore of Lake Michigan rather than down 
the east side. The reason was that the great Indian travel 
and trade route ran that way. At the head of Green 
Bay is the Fox River; when we went up the Fox River 
through Lake Winnebago yesterday, we came finally to 
the place (where I'ortage now is) at which the F'ox 
River is only about a mile and a half from the Wisconsm 
River, which empties into the Mississippi at Prairie du 
Chien. That route between the Great Lakes and the 
Mississippi was the most used by the Indians. There 



yo LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

were several others, but as you can see from the map 
they were hardly so central. For instance, there were 
two from near the head of Lake Superior and down the 
St. Croix River. South of Green Bay there were two 
ways of getting from Lake Michigan to the Illinois 
River. One was at Chicago, up the Chicago River, and 
down the Desplaines. The other led up the St. Joseph 
and down the Kankakee. The Fox-Wisconsin route, you 
see, was between the others. More than that, for In- 
dian canoes, it was a safer route to Mackinac than the 
others. Now suppose an Indian starting at the mouth 
of the Illinois were in a great hurry and was sure 
of smooth water and fair weather on Lake Michigan, 
he could get to Mackinac the quickest by going up the 
Illinois. But if he had a valuable cargo of furs and 
wanted to avoid open, rough water as much as possible, 
he would find it safer to go up the Mississippi to the 
Wisconsin River. 

'There is still another reason why this Fox-Wisconsin 
route was more important than others, and that is that 
an unusually large number of Indian tribes were to be 
found near it. You remember we found Chippewas 
around Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac, and Ottawas 
around Mackinaw City and L'Arbre Croche. On the u])per 
Mississippi were the Sioux Indians, and south of Green 
Bay were the Illinois. But in the Green Bay region itself 
were villages of eight other different tribes : the Winne- 
bagoes, the Menominees, the Pottawattomies, the Sacs, 
the Foxes, the Miamis, the Mascoutins, and the Kick- 
apoos. Some of these tribes, like the Miamis, had taken 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 99 

refuge there from stronger tribes like the Iroquois. r>om 
the Green Bay region they could flee in almost any direc- 
tion, if need be. Don't you remember that Nicholas 
Perrot was sent out especially to unite all these remnants 
of tribes so that they could keep off those relentless Iro- 
quois ?" 

"Oh, yes," said James. 'T>ut wasn't it funny. Uncle 
Jack, that some of those Iroquois should finally settle 
right on Green Bay?" 

"Of course," continued the Major, "the French had 
trading posts along the east shore very early, but actual 
settlement did not begin until after 1800. Ix)uis Campau, 
of the old Detroit family, traded at Grand Rapids about 
1825. He tells how on one trip his pony died, so he 
hung his trading pack on a tree and went back to Detroit 
for a new pony and fresh supplies. When he found his 
pack again it contained nothing but chips, each chip, 
however, carefully marked Avith a totem. After a while 
he met an Indian chief who shook hands and invited him 
to his village. There each Indian picked out a chip, told 
ATr. Campau what he had taken from the pack, and paid 
whatever Mr. Campau said was its value. 

"In 1833 there were settlements made at Grand 
Rapids, Grand Haven, Grandville or Wyoming, and 
Ionia. At Ionia the colonists bought the land which the 
Indians had cleared for their cornfields, and were thus 
able to raise a crop that year. A man named Stout was 
the first smith at Grand Rapids, and the name of the 
place ought to help you to guess what was the first thing 
he made." 



100 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

''Grand Rapids?" said James, **I haven't any idea!" 

"A fish spear, of course. Louis Campau built the first 
mill, which cut 1.500 feet of lumber a day. It also had 
millstones. Do \ ou remember, when we were at Saginaw, 
finding that Grand Rapids was right on the line between 
the hardwood and the softwood lands? Well, it seems 
perfectly natural, therefore, that as early as 1863 Grand 
Rapids should have had three 'cabinet-ware' factories." 

At Ludington they took a little steamer down the 
coast to Pentwater, where they caught a train to 
Muskegon. 

"Muskegon," said Major Woods in answer to Carrie's 
question, "means either 'marshy river' or 'wet prairie.' 
Forty years ago more lumber was shipped through Mus- 
kegon than through all the other ports on the east coast. 
But here we are ! We'll just have time for a walk down 
to the beach so as to get up an appetite." 

After a brisk walk along the beach they came back 
to the station and took another southbound train. In an 
hour or so they passed throuo^h Grand Haven, and Major 
Woods pointed out to them that they were almost due 
east of Milwaukee at about the widest part of the lake. In 
another hour they passed through Holland. 

"Does that mean that there are Hollanders here?" 
asked James. 

"Yes. In 1845-6 Holland — the mother country — suf- 
fered from hard times, and some of her chief men urged 
emigration to the Dutch East Indies, to the Cape of Good 
Hope, and to America. The party for America left Rot- 
terdam in the middle of September and reached New 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 101 

York forty-seven days later. From there the party travel- 
ed by way of Albany, iJuffalo, and Cleveland to Detroit. 
From Detroit they came overland to this neighborhood, 
where they really suffered for a year or so. Like the 
settlers at Ionia, the Dutch also used all the Indian clear- 
ings they could find. Another colony of Hollanders came 
over about the same time and settled in Green Bay." 

At St. Joseph they had some time to wait for the night 
boat to Chicago. The children took a walk along the 
avenue at the top of the bluff, and when they came back 
found Major and Mrs. Woods sitting on the hotel ver- 
anda. After a little the ^lajor said : 

"Did you know, children, that up the river here about 
sixty miles was the only fort near the great lakes that 
was held at different times by four different nations — five 
if you count the Indians?" 

**\Vhy, no. Uncle," answered James. "What nations 
would they be?" 

"Well, see if you can't figure it out." 

"I suppose." said James slowly, "that the French 
would be the first, wouldn't they?'' 

"Yes, they built the fort about 1697. Who would be 
the next possessors?^ 

"The British?" 

"When would they come?" 

"About 1760, I suppose, for the British took Canada 
then." 

"Yes. Who next:^" 

"Did Pontiac capture it in 1763?" 

"Yes. in ^Fav, about a week before Mackinac fell." 



102 LAKE MICHIGAN AND 

'Then, of course, the Americans took it over from 
the British," continued James, ''but I don't see what other 
nation ever had a chance at it." 

"Think a minute. What nations owned the Mississippi 
valley at one time or another?" 

"The French and the United States." 

"Do you remember an explorer who was buried in 
the Mississippi?" 

"Oh!" said Carrie. "I know. Hernando DeSoto." 

"What nation did he belong to?" 

"He was a Spaniard, wasn't he?" 

"Yes. Now, when France lost Canada, she gave all 
territory she had claimed west of the Mississippi to 
Spain. As a result, in 1871 Spain had a garrison at St. 
Louis. At that time the nearest English post, was at St. 
Joseph, so the Spanish commander sent a small party 
across country, surprised Fort St. Joseph, distributed its 
supplies, among the Indians who had helped him, burned 
the buildings, and marched back to St. Louis. So although 
the Spaniards didn't stay at Fort St. Joseph more than 
a day or two, the Spanish flas: once floated over it. 

"But tell me, James, why the French should ever 
have had a fort sixty miles up the river." 

"Sixty miles up. Uncle? Let's see the map. Why, 
that would be not far north from South Bend." 

"Right. It was in what is now Niles, Michigan. But 
why should it have been so far from the lake?" 

"I don't know. Uncle Jack. Why was it?" 

"I suppose the first reason was to protect the mission- 
aries who had gone up the St. Joseph valley to work 



THE FRENCH EXPLORERS 



103 



among the Iiulians 



\t first, you remember, the mission- 
aries nearly always took lead, and after they had estab- 
lished settlements, the soldiers came to protect them. The 
Indians lived along the river because there was good hunt- 
ing and fishing, and because not far from where the fort 
was built there was an easy portage across to the Kan- 
kakee. So the fort really guarded the portage." 




Boulder at Niles^ Mich., Set Up in 191.3 

**Is the fort there now, Uncle?" asked Carrie. 

"No. Even its exact site was in doubt for many years, 
until people began to find such relics as brass buttons and 
the metal parts of epaulettes in the space of about two 
acres. Now there is a huge boulder set up to mark the 
place." 

''T wish we could see it. Uncle," said Carrie. 

*T wish we could, too, but we haven't time. However, 
I can show you a picture of the boulder." 



104 



LAK1<: MlCllKJ.W AM) 



When the children had looked at the picture, the Major 
continued : 

"Now that we've come so near the end of our lonj^j 
journey, I find I'm sorry we can't prolong it. It would 
be pleasant to go from here to Chicago by trolley, down 
through Niles and Berrien Springs and South Bend, and 
up through Gary and Pullman. But you can get your 
father to take you on that trip." 

"Oh !" said Carrie, "Do you suppose papa will come 
down to meet us in the morning?" 

*'I sincerely hope he will!" said the Maior fervently. 



XOTHS .IXD Ol'HSriOXS 



On a map tincl the native cunntries of the Cuiinaiis, SuiMles. 
Xorwegians, Poles, Swiss, and Duteh. 

Black Hawk died in 1838. 

For an account of Joseph Branl, see the "Mohawk Valley 
and Lake Ontario." 

Pontiac is told ahout in the "Lake Erie" antl "Lake Huron" 
volumes of the Great Lakes Series. 

Trace on a map the journey from Milwaukee to Chicago 
by way of Ludington and St. Joseph. 

Spell, pronounce, and explain : 



territorial 

military 

patriotic 

athletic 

distrusted 

militia 

naturalization 



legislature 

maize 

heroine 

kidnapped 

ancestors 

regulars 

relentless 



rapidity 

pierced 

devotion 

disliked 

squatters 

stimulated 

boulder 



i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




016 097 613 5 




